Author: 易修罗 / Yi Xiu Luo

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 73

In no more than ten minutes, Red Head jumped out of the engine compartment, wrench in mouth, leaving only four people inside, including him.

The indicator lights on the panel lit up one by one, and the spaceship, which seemed to have been swept by storms, regained its power.

“I can only restore sixty to seventy percent of it. That’s all I can do.” Time was tight, parts were scarce, and as a non-mechanical student, this wasn’t easy to achieve.

“You have done very well,” Bing Can praised him, then turned to Ying Feng with a worried look. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yes, even if we restore full power, we can’t fly faster than the starship,” Ying Feng said in a low voice. “This is the only way to buy time.”

“If this is your decision, I will fully cooperate.” He turned his head and called to Red Head. “You take the wheel, release the rope, and return immediately.”

The scavenger disconnected from the escape pod. The rope floated irregularly in space due to inertia, seemingly trying to grab something. But its original master turned mercilessly away, and the spherical escape pod floated lonely in the universe again, like a planet without an orbit.

A huge black starship came over, silently swallowed it into its belly, and gradually disappeared into the darkness. If it weren’t for the debris floating around after the spaceship was hit, no one would notice what had happened here.

The escape pod was sucked into the starship as if it were originally a part of it. A large man appeared in the circular view as the cabin door opened. Ling Xiao had been lying in wait for this moment. He swiftly assembled a weapon in his right hand and firmly aimed it at the man’s chest.

“Don’t move.”

“How is it?” Bing Can saw the light in Ying Feng’s fingers and knew that the soul crystal he had been holding had been activated, which meant that Ling Xiao was confronting the enemy.

Ying Feng closed his eyes. His vision was no longer there.

“There’s only one person.” He was inspecting a corner of the starship through spiritual vision, which was several times larger than the retired starship they had seen in the military academy, but within his field of vision, there was only one living person, and all the posts that should have been manned were handled by machines.

“They must never have thought that we would dare to invade their territory alone, so they were unprepared.”

“But there must be others here. A starship of this size cannot operate with machines alone.”

Ling Xiao stood alone, confronting the man, who stood calmly, showing no concern.

“Is it you?” The tall man recognized the young man.

Ling Xiao couldn’t think of when he had met him.

But now was not the time to inquire about his identity. He emphasized again, “Don’t move. Hands up.”

The man complied, opening his hands to reveal nothing.

“Let them go. Don’t chase.”

The man calmly glanced at Ling Xiao’s uniform. “You are young, but brave. Everyone on that garbage ship must be your classmates. If there was an adult, they wouldn’t send you.”

“I am already an adult.” Ling Xiao straightened his back.

The man responded with a disdainful sneer.

“Where are you taking Shang Yang?”

Ling Xiao’s mind thundered.

He raised his head abruptly. “Are you Tai Yin?”

He could never have imagined that the man standing in front of him would be Tai Yin, the state-level fugitive who had lived for more than four hundred years.

Ling Xiao’s palms were filled with cold sweat. How much chance of winning did he have against this dangerous individual and the unknown number of unseen people?

He remained vigilant. Tai Yin’s accomplices hadn’t appeared, but Ling Xiao believed he wouldn’t be the only one on this starship.

Regardless, Shang Yang couldn’t fall into his hands again.

Ying Feng could see the scene but not hear their conversation.

“What are they talking about?”

“It seems like he recognizes Ling Xiao.”

“Do you know him?”

“Never seen him before.”

“We should call Ling Xiao back as soon as possible.” Bing Can had a sense of unease.

“Mm,” Ying Feng said, using the summoning token, but Ling Xiao didn’t appear as expected. He focused again but felt nothing on the other end.

Bing Can stood up; Ying Feng said nothing, but his expression told him what he feared the most had happened.

“They should be far away by now. You’ve been left behind like this, don’t you mind?” Tai Yin kindly reminded Ling Xiao.

The time was about what Ling Xiao had estimated. Even if he left now, Tai Yin couldn’t catch up to them. Thinking of this, Ling Xiao’s tone became much more relaxed.

“I haven’t been left behind.” He curved his lips slightly. “Your Qizi is already dead, but my Qizhu is still alive.”

His words successfully made Tai Yin’s face darken a bit. “Your so-called battle plan wouldn’t be so naive as to send you to delay time and then let your Qizhu summon you back, would it?”

“Naive or not, it’s a fact that you can’t catch up to them now.”

“But you can’t go back either.”

Ling Xiao tried his best to appear calm on the surface, but he had started to have doubts. Ying Feng should have pulled him back long ago. Why hadn’t he acted yet?

Seeing his expression, Tai Yin knew he had guessed correctly. “Young man, you have never left your Qizhu’s side, right? Did you really think the abilities of a Qizhu are omnipotent? Daring to invade anywhere and abduct anyone without assessing one’s own abilities.”

“Do you know the summoning range of a Qizhu? When they accelerated for the second time, you were already unable to teleport next to them. Then, the mental vision failed, and finally, even the voices of mental communication can’t be conveyed. It’s really regrettable. Sometimes the Qizi is powerless in the face of distance.”

Ling Xiao’s face gradually paled, and Ying Feng’s voice resounded in his mind as if corroborating.

There’s a problem with the plan, I… 

His voice abruptly stopped. The scavenger had already driven out of the effective range of mental communication, and Ling Xiao believed Tai Yin was telling the truth.

“Now do you know why I’m not in a hurry to chase?” Tai Yin spoke in a tone as if he had the situation under control. “Because they will come back sooner or later, unless they simply don’t care about your life or death.”

“How is it?” Bing Can took a step forward anxiously.

Ying Feng had a complicated expression. “…It seems there’s a distance limit to summoning. I’ve lost contact with him.”

The scavenger made an emergency stop.

“You mean you can’t summon Ling Xiao back? Why didn’t you discover this earlier?” Red Head was about to turn around by pulling the control lever, but he was forcefully stopped midway.

Red Head turned his head in surprise; it was Ying Feng who stopped him, and the latter’s eyes were shimmering, seemingly battling internally.

“What are you doing!” he questioned.

“Don’t turn around. Keep moving forward.” Ying Feng’s voice was very low, as if coming from deep within his throat.

“Are you joking?! Ling Xiao is alone there. Do you know how dangerous that is?”

Ying Feng was silent for several seconds before he struggled to say, “I know.”

“You know and you’re still stopping me?” Red Head shouted incomprehensibly. “Even if your relationship is only three stars, he is still your Qizi. Don’t you even care about his life or death?”

Another hand touched the back of Red Head’s hand, gentle yet firm. “Ying Feng’s decision is correct. Do as he says.”

“Even you too…”

Bing Can turned his head, and Red Head instinctively followed. An unidentified fledgling was lying there, still unconscious despite receiving treatment.

On one side was Ling Xiao, and the fledgling was on the other. Without a surplus of words, Red Head understood what they wanted to say.

The plan was hastily made, but someone had anticipated all possible situations, including the one where Ling Xiao couldn’t come back.

This decision was made the moment Ling Xiao entered the escape pod. Every mature Tianxiu person would protect the fledglings with their lives; this was the foundation for their race’s survival.

Red Head’s hand, which was gripping the control lever, began to shake. Feeling his struggle, Bing Can increased his grip. He could forcefully make his Qizi let go, but at this moment, he hoped Qian Si could make the decision himself.

“I understand.”

Red Head closed his eyes and pushed the control lever forward. The street sweeper moved towards the space station at the fastest speed on the predetermined route.

“No, you are wrong.” The young man in front of Tai Yin suddenly spoke. Tai Yin raised an eyebrow, unaware of his mistake.

“They won’t come back, not even for me here.”

“It seems your Qizhu and companions don’t care much about you. Knowing you’re in danger and still not coming back to save you.”

“It has nothing to do with the quality of affection. I’ve told you the reason.” Ling Xiao calmly looked into his eyes. “Because I’m an adult, always ready to sacrifice for the fledglings. I believe my companions would make the same choice. That fledgling isn’t Shang Yang; he risked the danger of his soul scattering in the universe to escape from here. Don’t you understand his choice by now?”

Tai Yin stared at him with a dark expression. “I don’t know about others’ choices. I just know you’re in big trouble soon.”

With a muffled sound, Ling Xiao fell softly to the ground, losing consciousness. After he fell, a person was revealed standing behind him; the muzzle of the gun in his hand was still emitting a faint smoke.

“You’re too slow.” Tai Yin blamed him dissatisfactory.

“I was just curious because you hadn’t come back for so long, so I kindly came down to check. I didn’t expect you, being a genius scientist, to be so foolish as to be taken hostage. Did your intelligence flee along with Shang Yang on the day he escaped?”

“They drove a scavenger. I thought they were workers cleaning up space. I didn’t expect them to be students of Royal Sky. It was my momentary carelessness.”

“Well, you have a hostage now anyway. Can’t you just have them exchange him directly?”

“Don’t be naive. The military won’t exchange an adult for a fledgling. This person is useless and will attract the military’s firepower.”

“I see.” The man shrugged his shoulders. “Then I’ll just throw him out of here.”

“What I meant by useless is to me, but he is the one Xing Lou wants. We have to ensure that he stays alive.” Tai Yin complained in a low voice, “How unlucky to run into him.”

“Neither throwing nor keeping him is good. What should we do now?”

Tai Yin thought for a while. “Throw him into the escape pod and leave a launch signal for him. Someone will find him.”

“How troublesome.” The man tried to pick up the gun on the ground, but the weapon disappeared the moment it left Ling Xiao’s hand.

“…What annoys me the most are those soul crystals you guys use. You don’t leave any spoils of war.”

A mechanical alarm sounded from the loudspeaker. “Radar has detected an approaching fleet. Do you want to change course?”

Tai Yin snorted. “They came really fast.”

He turned and walked quickly to the upper level, instructing loudly as he walked, “Don’t worry about that man for now. Throwing him out now will be noticed. Shang Yang should have been sent to the nearest space station. We need to find him and leave here as quickly as possible.”

The battered scavenger rushed into the space station, and the staff had already been waiting near the runway.

“We have already notified the military to come to the rescue. You all did very well. Leave the rest to us. Superiors ordered you must return to the ground immediately.”

Before Bing Can and Red Head, who were helping to carry the fledgling out of the cabin, could say a word of refusal, the parked scavenger flew out quickly and sailed into space, leaving everyone stunned.

Red Head chased angrily for a few steps. “Ying Feng, you idiot, what’s the use of driving a garbage truck out? You should take me with you!”

A two-person military battleship quietly stopped beside him. The door opened, revealing Bing Can in the driver’s seat.

Red Head’s eyes lit up, and he jumped in. Bing Can pulled the control stick and once again left in front of the staff. The people reacted and ran after him, but they couldn’t catch up with the speed of a battleship.

“My Qizhu is much smarter than Ling Xiao’s Qizhu.” Red Head looked back at the group of people running and waving them to stop, feeling proud. “So I am much smarter than Ling Xiao.”

“The casualty doesn’t hold.” Bing Can initiated the secondary acceleration. He must catch up with Ying Feng as soon as possible. “The starship just now has a stealth system. Even the military might not be able to find it.”

Red Head immediately became nervous. “Then who can find it?”

“Ying Feng. If Ling Xiao is still on that starship, only Ying Feng can find him.”

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