Legend of the Supreme Soldier - Chapter 331

o time to ponder!

By classical conditioning, Ye Chong’s hands swept over the control panel once again.

Hundreds of beams came from the stampede of mutated lifeforms below.

E-Energy beam?!

Boom! Boom! Crash!

The beams passed by hovering mechs in the sky. They exploded, burnt and fell into a handful of meteorites.

The plot twist was shocking to everyone.

Apparently Blaze-III was the monstrosity’s main target as quite a few pillars of light came towards Ye Chong. He reacted quickly with a rough swing and dodged them gracelessly. Nevertheless, the two arms of Blaze-III had been destroyed by the beams. The core of the main body remained intact, most fortunately, or Ye Chong could not imagine himself joining the falling stars.

The beams continued as Ye Chong frantically inputted new commands on the control panel. Blaze-III was carrying out one standard dodge after another while Ye Chong, having cold sweat over his forehead, was slowly being consumed by it. Blaze-III was facilitated with a standard pressure buffering system yet Ye Chong was getting wobbly by the constant drastic turns he made. The beam attack was so ferocious and dense that no matter what he did Blaze-III still got hit on its right leg. One could see the circuits as well as the gears dripping in black revealed at the wreckage. How would the machinery fight with only a single leg left?

The grand debut of Blaze-III was now a memory, as pathetically it hovered. Ye Chong almost saw himself becoming part of the memory too, if it was not for his quick action. The audience was still in the aftermath of the plot twist, unable to react.

The sudden raid had demolished most of the mechs in the sky. More allies had fallen in the next few minutes. Ye Chong could foresee a hundred of them had gone into debris. “No! The mutated lifeforms can’t be firing!”

“Humans? There were snipers?”

The pilots of the three teams realized the cold fact to their demise.

“This is unforgivable! We are fighting for men and we get hit by them?” The pilots were enraged as they removed themselves from the stampede of lifeforms and headed towards the source of firing. They fired up all their ranged weaponry and drastically looked for that very damned target to launch a barrage.

It was hard. The snipers were lurking within the lifeforms. Their disguise was great as well.

The stranger thing was, despite being within the bunches of mutated lifeforms, the snipers seemed to be unnoticed by them.

The pilots wondered, of what kind of relationship both the snipers shared with the mutated lifeforms, that they could avoid being attacked by them. The snipers had ascended into the newest enemy of humanity.

Little did they know, that there was Bi Bo’s camera capturing everything the whole time. The happening had been broadcasted throughout the galaxy and these little assassins had become the public enemy.

Ye Chong was unnerved, as he realized strength would not be his safety charm, since luck would also be part of the account. At least he was not part of the major misfortune.

The beams showered again and Ye Chong zoomed towards one of the landing sites of the near building. Blaze-III did not decelerate even when approaching, not because it did not intend to, it was because the situation forbade it to. The beams were chasing it and Ye Chong carried on his insane APM to perform clumsy dodges to survive. He could guarantee that he would become ashes the moment he turned down his gear.

The strength of these snipers was stronger than he thought. It had been a while since he last met pilots that could push him to the corner like this. Moreover, the snipers after him were not one or two, but literally seven of them!

Right when he was 3 meters away from the parking site, he opened the cabin of Blaze-III and quickly ejected himself! Ye Chong made a peculiar twist with his body, dodging that very beam millimeters away from his waist. He could almost hear his heart pumping, his body shivering, as the twist was made out of his habitual caution, never would he expect they would fire at him even at brief second like this.

The tip of his toes touched the ground, the muscles of both his legs contracted dramatically. Boom! A crater was made below as he launched himself like a fired arrow, all the way deep into the connecting tube.

Another beam followed 5 centimeters from his back as he made a new twist to dodge it. The beam missed him but landed on a poor mech in the air instead. Boom! The mech swallowed its debris.

His back was wetted by cold sweat. His neck was stiff, warning him to never turn back. A few tips he made with his toes again, zigzagging his way into the darkness of the tube.

Was it safety? He thought.

He was panting heavily. The brief inhumane execution consumed a majority of his stamina. His nerves were wrecked. Feeling lightheaded, he almost fell. He was drained as sweat fell off his fringe. His clothing was soaked by his sweat of fear.

Within the last 3 minutes, he had experienced the dead-or-alive for countless times.

It’s been a while. He thought.

At some point of time he got so strong that he was no longer concerned about the tricks the foes seemed to know. He had always been the leading person in a battleground, unlike today.

Blaze-III was still crappy as I thought! Oh my Fal galaxy… I would have died with this piece facing the real deal.

The 7 men were true killers. While 6 of them seemed to have a shabbier shooting skill than Bi Bo, the strongest one of them all – the seventh man, was giving Ye Chong most fears, as the last few shots that trailed Ye Chong to the building, were by none other than him. Lady Luck was by Ye Chong’s side today but not sure if she would be, on the next battle they faced again.

Leaned against the wall, Ye Chong could not stop panting.

The war had gotten more chaotic. The remaining pilots were certainly not outnumbered by these few snipers. But from the aspect of skillfulness, it was battle between a whole bunch of novice and a handful of adepts.

The pilots were angered by the sudden attack at first. But they quickly calmed down and tried to regain control of the situation. After losing around a hundred of mechs, the figure seemed to have stabilized. There were still mortality from their sides, but not at a rate as horrendous as before, while mechs of those pesky snipers seemed to have decreased as well.

The fighting mechs zoomed towards the mechs facing the army of mutated lifeforms below, showing no fear, no retreat on their side.

Nobody could witness the death of their teammate one after another with folded arms.

Dead or alive. To battle or to die. The spirit was kindled among the men. They no longer feared those terrifying beasts stampeding right before them.

In the dim sky, different kind of beams were exchanged, with occasionally flames of the explosion of a fallen ally. The cruelty of war had just been blatantly presented to the world.

Bi Bo’s face was calm, yet his eyes were convincingly wild, as filled with a kind of untamed rage of a wolf in sheepskin. He was not a blind-shooter, neither he was a blockhead, soon he could already distinguish the potential relationship between these pesky snipers and the mutated lifeforms.

The Spider was on full fire!

As trained by his father the great, his shooting skill was impeccable!

His sequence of shooting only consisted of lock-on and fire, all within a matter of split second, while aiming every fatality of the target mechs. He had smashed 4 mechs so far.

Rui Bing in the Guardian was observing the warfield under the guard of Dimming Blue. Her man was certainly a risk-taker, a super risk-taker too, that on a few occasions he just had to gamble his life performing acrobatics to scare the soul out of her. “At least he is safe.” She was relieved. All mutated lifeforms inside the circle of Dimming Blue had been cleared. She had started getting familiar with the first toy Ye Chong gave her – the Guardian.

And nobody seemed to have noticed there was also a godlike expert here.

Her eyes aimed those nasty mechs who tried to strike her man just now, as her body lowered, her feet sank to the ground. She made a leap, hurled herself over the boundary of blue flames, into the wave of mutated lifeforms.

The golden figure weaved in and out of the monstrosity. The Guardian was the perfection for quick, small movements, while speed was the bread and butter of Rui Bing. She zapped her way under the enhancement of the Guardian, none of the mutated lifeforms could even catch her sight.

Soon she approached one of those mechs. Yes. That mech was the one who tried shooting Ye Chong.

Within the scope of darkness, countless fine white lines formed a three dimensional model of the target, rotating and enlarging quickly. Rui Bing was then flushed by the data stream of infinity, with the surrounding fading out and only the three crossing lines of target remained!

he dagger in her hand cut exactly where the three white lines were. While the dagger was not Rui Bing’s preferred weapon, her three swipes were quick and true. Rui Bing continued advancing forward without delay, not even looking back at the results of her attack as she vanished into the endless hoard of mutants. Even the mech pilot did not realize that his mech had received three blows. Guardian had excellent anti-detection properties.

Boom! The mech exploded without warning, its fragments spraying outwards, killing the mutants around it. Where the mech had been was not a black spot of charred earth. The explosion was so strong that it left an eight-diameter circle of clearing.

The ambushing mechs had scattered around the area for better cover. On top of that, the explosion went unnoticed because of the chaotic situation.

Guardian was a miniature mech, less than two meters tall. Rui Bing moved between the towering mutants that could easily reach up to five meters.

Rui Bing used the same method to finish off another two mechs. By then, the unusual casualties finally drew the attention of the other party. However, they did not spot Rui Bing yet, even though they were sure that someone was hiding out there and attacking them.

When the fourth mech exploded, the ambushers finally felt a little frightened. It was a truly horrible experience to face against a powerful and invisible enemy. Up until now, they still did not know who the enemy was!

Amidst the chaos that unfolded on the streets, the use of optical systems was disastrous. The countless number of mutants moving around on the screen and the narrow vision afforded was more than enough to confuse the viewer. Any mech pilot would surely be overcome by dizziness very quickly.

In the flight runway, Ye Chong deployed Han Jia. After some rest, his stamina returned. He slipped into the pilot cabin easily and put his hands gently on the controls. Ye Chong exhaled softly and put his hands to work.

Han Jia’s first battle began.

In the flight runway, Han Jia continued to pick up speed. Ye Chong’s face was as cold as marble. He breathed steadily, now in his top form. As the exit grew larger and larger in view, he shivered a little in excitement.

The flight runway was not wide, so Han Jia kept its colorful wings folded. The exit grew closer, and when Han Jia finally emerged outside, it spreaded out its large and beautiful pair of colorful wings.

Han Jia flew across the sky like a butterfly, marking its first voyage into battle.

Bi Bo was too focused recording that he did not notice the mech that silently hovered in the air like a butterfly. Bi Bo’s recorder was based on optics, so Han Jia appeared clearly on it.

Outside Zhou Jian, one could hear the ladies shouting excitedly amidst the crowd as they watched the holographic screen, dazzled by what they were seeing. Women were always vulnerable to pretty things, much less something as beautiful as Han Jia. They gasped in awe at the mech, wondering what kind of mech it was.

Han Jia looked down from above at the dense spread of mutants on the ground. Laser beams continued to shoot from below towards the mechs in the sky.

Ye Chong quickly locked on one of the mechs. This was a red and black mech. The pilot was an excellent shooter and a powerful fighter. The mech had brought down no less than 15 mechs. Unlike other laser beams that were slightly tinged with yellow, its lasers were a bright red, and could deeply penetrate armor. It must be this mech that had nearly hit him. “He must be the leader,” thought Ye Chong to himself.

Han Jia’s colorful wings reflected a kaleidoscope of colors from the sun’s rays, sparkling like the rippling surface of a lake.

Han Jia dived with its wings folded. It shot down so fast that everyone was surprised. The mech experts all gasped in awe and stood up in excitement.

Lightning! It shot down like lightning! The mech left behind a colorful afterimage that looked like a straight brush of rainbow.

“That was fast,” the experts all thought to themselves in shock.

The red and black mech enlarged quickly on Han Jia’s holographic screen. Its every detail was captured clearly. Han Jia’s mechanical palms conjured up its two daggers, both in a brown-gray that looked like wood. It looked like a bad match against Han Jia’s beauty.

The red and black mech did not notice the impending danger as it searched for its next target.

Gray Cross attack!

The brown-gray daggers drew an “X” in the air. Han Jia swished past the red and black mech with only a meter’s distance between them.

Han Jia moved so quickly that the red and black mech shook a little from the air pressure that dropped while Han Jia passed by.

The mech pilot inside was vigilant, and knew instantly that something had flew past his mech. However, his holographic screen showed nothing at all.

How was that possible? He was shocked. This was impossible! A terrifying thought occurred to him then. Could it be …

He quickly recalled the mechs that exploded for no reason earlier. That must be it! The mystery was solved. He was anxious to warn his subordinates about it, but he never had the chance. The violent explosion swallowed him up. He lost consciousness as his vision darkened.

By now, Han Jia was already a few hundred meters away from the mech. Han Jia’s two daggers were mixed in with Do Kun stone, which made them fatally sharp.

“Where are you?” Ye Chong asked through the public comms channel. He also activated his optical system. Han Jia’s scanning system and photon processor were its most deplorable parts. It would be impossible to find Rui Bing through them. Hence, Ye Chong took to asking through the public comms channel, unafraid of being overheard.

As expected, Rui Bing recognized Ye Chong’s voice. “I’m here.”

Ye Chong quickly scanned through Han Jia’s optical system and found Rui Bing. The gold humanoid was leaping from one mutant’s back to another at high speed.

Guardian had a malleable shell, and was tight fitting. Rui Bing’s body curves were all finely traced out on the humanoid mech. If Shang were here, he would surely be stunned by her perfect measurements. Due to her long and persistent combat training, Rui Bing’s body was all muscles and no fat.

Han Jia flew low towards Rui Bing.

Ye Chong suddenly spoke through the public comms, “I’m behind you, jump!”

Rui Bing leaped off the back of a mutant rat without delay, jumping high into the air. Han Jia swept past her and gently held on to Rui Bing, placing her on Han Jia’s shoulder.

Ye Chong said, “We need to catch someone back, alive.”

“Alright.” Sitting on Han Jia’s shoulder, Rui Bing felt a sweet blessing.

The golden woman with perfect measurements sat on the shoulder of a dazzling butterfly with colorful wings, looking through its spiral black-and-white eyes. It was destined to become an unforgettable sight.

No one knew the name of Han Jia. In fact, from then on, people always referred to the mech as the Rainbow Butterfly. To them, it was a name that symbolized the flawlessly beautiful mech that appeared and vanished so quickly from the world.

“Get ready,” Ye Chong warned softly. Rui Bing focused herself. She switched into a half-crouched stance, readying herself. Rui Bing stood steadily half-crouched on a small spot on Han Jia’s shoulder while Han Jia flew quickly through the air, a testimony to her incredible sense of balance.

“Now!”

Han Jia’s colorful wings disappeared, while its 12 flexible tentacles struck like lightning towards the mech that was standing in front, among the mutants. The sharp hooks at the tip of the tentacles were barely visible.

Pak! The 12 tentacles nailed the mech firmly to the ground.

A grey shadow swished past. Han Jia’s dagger was sharp, instantly severing the four limbs off the mech, leaving only its body. Rui Bing launched herself from her half-crouched position, the dagger in her hand carving a square out of the armor of the mech.

Guardian’s dagger was called Number Two’s Dagger. It was also sharp, almost as sharp as Han Jia’s daggers that were mixed in with Do Kun Stone. Ye Chong never figured out much about Guardian’s structure and material, and was equally ignorant of the materials and method used to craft that dagger.

Gu Shaoze was a true genius! Ye Chong sighed to himself as he had done so for many times before.

She lightly peeled the armor, and it flew off into the distance.

This turn of events was too sudden that the mech pilot inside was still confused when he found himself exposed. A gold humanoid was staring at him with odd, black-and-white eyes. It was like a dream.

Was he dreaming? He wondered at the bizarre sight that greeted him.

Rui Bing did not hesitate. She lightly chopped on the side of his neck, and mech pilot slumped down instantly.

Rui Bing hauled him up without a word and leapt onto Han Jia’s shoulder. Ye Chong’s hands moved, and Han Jia quickly flew towards the alchemy building, into a flight runway.

When Ye Chong and Rui Bing hauled the man into the storage room, everyone stared dumbly at them. They had been watching the holographic images on the screen, which did not show their mechs.

Ye Chong flung the captured mech pilot towards Fei Si, and said in his calm voice, “He’s probably an experimental subject infected with the virus. Please study him. He’ll wake up in 10 days.” What Ye Chong really meant was, “Please study him as you please.”

Just then, the holographic screen on the wall showed lesser and lesser laser attacks towards the sky.

Ye Chong and Rui Bing exchanged a glance.

“They’re escaping.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go.”

“Alright.”

Ye Chong deployed Han Jia and slipped into the pilot cabin. Rui Bing deployed Guardian, hopped onto Han Jia’s shoulder and sat down. Han Jia flew off with its colorful wings as the people in the room gasped in awe.

Fei Si watched Han Jia, with Rui Bing on its shoulder. A silent tear rolled down her cheeks.

ui Bing sat on Han Jia’s shoulder as Han Jia flew close to the ground. While it was highly effective in avoiding detection, Ye Chong still flew around buildings for cover. Just in front of them, dozens of mechs were desperately flying away to escape. They never imagined that someone would be tailing them.

After flying for nearly half an hour, these mechs finally slowed down.

This was once a prosperous commercial area with many tall buildings. Now, it was filled with dead silence, littered with dismembered corpses. The once elegant buildings were now completely destroyed, leaving behind unrecoverable wreckage. The mechs quickly divided into numerous smaller squads and entered the jungle of skyscrapers.

Ye Chong could only lock on to one of the squads, formed by only two mechs. They took many turns along the way before finally entering a warehouse.

Could this be their headquarters? Ye Chong hesitated. Entering the warehouse required some form of identification. Forcing their way in was possible, but not without alarming the others inside.

Han Jia circled around to another side of the warehouse. It looked around, and found no one was watching.

The mech took out its dagger and drew a square on the wall. Han Jia’s other hand carefully supported this square. Inside Han Jia’s pilot cabin, Ye Chong was all focused, his hands moving as fast as he could. Han Jia’s delicate movements were difficult to maneuver, as evident from Ye Chong’s intense focus.

Han Jia carefully slid the square out of the wall. Ye Chong was surprised to find that, instead of a single layer of strong compound material, the wall was made up of three layers – a center layer of ultra-strong alloy board sandwiched between two layers of strong compound material.

The place was suspicious alright. If not for Han Jia’s sharp daggers, it would be near impossible to cut through the wall with normal laser swords.

Han Jia bent over and crawled into the warehouse.

The inside was full of stacks of boxed goods. Ye Chong quickly found the two mechs he was following. They had their backs turned to him, and were heading down an underground tunnel. Ye Chong inhaled in relief. If they had been facing him, he would have been discovered there and then.

The underground tunnel was simple, without requiring any identification.

Rui Bing asked softly, “Entrance to an underground sewer?” She sounded surprised. Ye Chong and Rui Bing had set a specific channel for communication, allowing them to reach each other easily.

“So it’s an underground sewer entrance,” Ye Chong realized then. He would never have known about it. After all, Rui Bing had been living in this society for much longer, and was more familiar with these common things.

The entrance to the underground sewer was shut tight.

10 seconds later, when Ye Chong believed that the two mechs were far enough from them, he finally approached the entrance. The lid was opened, and Ye Chong carried Rui Bing down into the sewers.

The sewer was wider than they expected. It was about a hundred meters from top to bottom. A mech could easily fly inside. Both sides of the wall were fitted with air sterilizers every five meters, so the air was not too polluted.

The city’s sewerage system was very advanced. The drainage water flowing inside was turbid, but otherwise clear of other waste materials. A ledge separated the drainage water at the center into two streams. The ledge was interrupted by a huge support pillar every ten meters, and this pattern stretched on without end.

Ye Chong maneuvered Han Jia carefully. The two mechs in front of him were no longer in sight. However, they had only directions to choose from, so the choice was not too complicated.

“Which direction?” Ye Chong asked. Since Rui Bing was now his comrade, it was reasonable for him to ask for her opinion.

Rui Bing closed her eyes as she sat on Han Jia’s shoulder. She opened up her arms to feel the vibrations in the air. After five seconds, Rui Bing opened her eyes and pointed forward, “They’re somewhere in front.”

Han Jia accelerated without hesitation. Rui Bing sat steadily on Han Jia’s shoulder, unaffected by the sudden motion.

Han Jia’s engine was silent but powerful. It flew like a ghost, slowly closing in on the two mechs in front.

Gradually, Ye Chong began to sense that something was amiss.

“Strange, there’s none of those mutants here,” Rui Bing wondered. Her expertise in spiritual training allowed her to be more sensitive than Ye Chong.

Ye Chong realized what was wrong then. The sewer was dark, but clean. When the entire planet was overcome by mutants, the sewer seemed untouched. It was strange indeed.

As they followed the two mechs from afar, the size of the sewage tunnels astounded Ye Chong. They had been flying for quite a while, and still had not reached the end. There were branches of tunnels along the way. It was practically a huge underground maze.

It was dark and quiet in here. The air was moist, and there were patches of moss here and there. Some of the stone pillars were already yellowing from age. The occasional sound of water droplets falling from above seemed to create ripples in their hearts.

Ye Chong adjusted his holographic scanning system quickly. The two mechs had reached a multi-branched junction ahead, where many stone pillars blocked his view.

A red beam flashed in the darkness ahead.

Ye Chong’s eyes widened. He saw it clearly. The leading mech’s pilot cabin was shot through by the red beam. Ye Chong was sure that the mech pilot inside would not survive the attack.

Han Jia came to an emergency stop and hid behind a stone pillar!

Someone was ambushing here!

The second mech pilot obviously panicked, freezing as he did. This temporary panic was equivalent to suicide. As expected, another red beam flashed in the darkness and hit right on the mech.

“Amazing shooting skills!” Ye Chong thought to himself in surprise. He could see that the red beams did not come from the same place. In such a short time, the ambusher had switched positions. More terrifying was the fact that the red beam could shoot through the mech’s pilot cabin. After all, for a mech of any model, the pilot cabin was the most heavily protected part, and would have the thickest armor reinforcements. The red beam could so easily shoot through the thick armor around the pilot cabin made Ye Chong wonder if Han Jia could block the attack.

Just who was this ambusher?

Out of the darkness, two mechs appeared.

One was in black and white, in ancient heavyweight armor, with shoulder guards that curled up at the ends. The mech was covered in a dizzying pattern of black and white, and its bionic eyes seemed half closed. It had a strange looking weapon on its back. It looked like a lance, but with two crescent shaped blades around its tip. It must be a kind of ancient weapon, but Ye Chong did not recognize it.

This was surely a mech that Ye Chong had never seen before, but for some reason, it did look familiar.

The other mech was a gray-brown mech, with a pair of creepy, blood red bionic eyes. This mech was much more slender compared to the other sturdier looking mech. Its upper half body was shaped like an inverted triangle. Ye Chong could find at least 12 concealed shooting chambers on it. The mech held a dark red shooting weapon. One could tell from the long gun chamber that it was a quality weapon.

Han Jia and Guardian’s anti-detection properties were something that Ye Chong was always confident of. No scanning system had been able to detect both mechs yet.

Until today.

The two mechs abruptly turned over, and a red beam shot towards Han Jia’s location. Fortunately, it was blocked by the stone pillar it was hiding behind, or Ye Chong would have suffered greatly from the hit. Ye Chong reacted quickly, stepping back swiftly while shielding both Han Jia and Rui Bing behind its large wings.

Pow! A soft sound was heard. A red beam shot through the stone pillar and hit Han Jia’s wings, leaving a small burn mark. Ye Chong heaved a sigh of relief. Han Jia’s wings defended well against energy type weapons, as expected.

They were now right at a multi-branched junction in the sewer. The territory was irregular and complicated, and the stone pillars covered them well.

The two mechs separated and approached them from both sides.

“One each?” Ye Chong asked.

“Yes,” Rui Bing answered succinctly, launching herself forward before she finished her single reply.

Ye Chong faced the black and white mech. The enemy seemed to know he was facing a dangerous opponent. The weapon on its back was now held in its hands. Han Jia also took out its daggers, holding them in its hands. The wings were folded back in. In this complicated territory, the wings would be a hindrance to motion.

Ye Chong found it surprising that they could detect them. However, from the looks of it, battle was inevitable. If they run away now, they would most likely be shot. After all, the enemy seemed to be an extraordinary sniper mech pilot.

If that was the case, then they will fight.

Ye Chong met his opponent bravely. The opponent was obviously a close range mech. In this kind of territory, Ye Chong would not be worried even if his opponent was a long range mech, much less a close range one!

Close range combat was Ye Chong’s expertise and favorite way of battle.

“An expert it is,” Ye Chong thought to himself, studying his opponent’s calm and steady flight. The pilot of this black and white mech must be a very experienced veteran. Han Jia’s speed was also kept below its maximum.

Both mechs were 500 meters apart. They charged towards each other at the same time.

he two mechs represented very different combat styles. The black and white mech fought openly, its long weapon swinging about powerfully. The mech fought carefully and continuously, leaving no openings. From a combat expert’s perspective, Ye Chong thought highly of him. He was like a rock among the waves, resisting all forces against it.

Han Jia fought with a completely different style. With its wings folded back in, the slender Han Jia was just like an assassin weaving in and out of the darkness. It took advantage of the territory and its speed to circle around the black and white mech like a ghost. Whenever the opponent had a small opening, Han Jia would swipe in with its brown-gray dagger. The black and white mech would then be temporarily flustered. Besides, Han Jia’s 12 flexible tentacles attacked without warning, a terrifying weapon to deal with.

The black and white mech’s defense was solid. Ye Chong was surprised to find that the opponent did not use any defensive weaponry at all, such as shields or the like. It managed to block all of his attacks with just its strange looking lance. “Excellent skills!” Ye Chong thought to himself in increasing astonishment as he fought. Moreover, whenever he slowed down just a bit, the strange looking lance would quickly be on his tail. Ye Chong dared not slow down, and could only desperately kept maneuvering Han Jia to circle around the mech.

Ye Chong did not know that his opponent was even more surprised. He was already giving his best, but could only barely hold against Ye Chong. The enemy fought strangely, its two daggers reflecting no light in the darkness. He grew more terrified when he noticed that the daggers had always attacked his weakest spots. Once the daggers appeared, the attack would come in waves, leaving him no room to breathe. The tentacles were even harder to deal with, vanishing as soon as they appeared.

No one who knew him well would believe that he was suppressed to this extent.

Both of them were in a stalemate. It was a battle of patience. Whoever presented an opening first would receive a devastating blow. None of them expected the battle to drag on like this. However, given their situation, they could not just escape.

Similar to them, Rui Bing and the other mech were also ending up in a stalemate.

The gray-brown mech’s red sniper rifle shot with astounding accuracy, and the mech pilot was also a competent fighter. He recognized that his opponent was in a miniature mech. Miniature mechs were never a match for normal mechs. However, he was confounded by the fact that this rule did not apply in his battle now. His opponent was shockingly powerful, changing directions in mind bending ways. That was not all. He found himself unable to lock on his opponent due to her unbelievably deft footwork.

Cold sweat began to roll down his spine.

If it was any other combat expert, that person in Guardian would have died a few times over. However, this was Rui Bing. In ancient times, combat experts were most afraid of weapons like arrows and bows. These long range weapons allowed a slightly trained young child to kill a combat expert with decades of harsh training.

Every attack has its counter. Combat experts thought hard on ways to overcome these deadly long range weapons, designing techniques specifically used to avoid them. However, these techniques gradually lost their use in the advent of energy weapons, and were slowly lost in history. Even if someone found out about them, they would not learn those techniques due to their uselessness.

However, this was Rui Bing.

The Rui Family grew to become an independent school of combat, and kept complete records of its techniques. As a focused learner since young and a strong conservative, Rui Bing was familiar with almost every technique that could be found in her family records.

Additionally, she was a Jie expert. She could perform a technique that was useless to someone else and achieve different and better results. Moreover, with her acute spiritual senses, she could judge situations very accurately, much like the mentalists from the Sanctuary.

That was how she managed to avoid being hit for so long. However, it was not a walk in the park for her. Rui Bing felt her stamina decreasing rapidly. Her opponent’s shooting accuracy was also putting her under great pressure. She could feel the threat of death every second. The red beam had barely grazed past her three times already.

Both sides did not expect to meet strong opponents here, but they were now all in this stalemate. Each of them groaned on the inside at their predicament, but had to keep up with their own battles.

It was the other side that finally relented. From the public comms channel came a low voice of a man, “My friend, this must be a misunderstanding. Why don’t we stop fighting?”

“Alright!” Ye Chong replied. Both sides would suffer if they continued fighting. Given that they had fought with each other for so long, they had a good grasp of their opponent’s strength. Giving up the fight was the obvious choice for both sides.

The black and white mech immediately eased down his defenses. Ye Chong noticed, and quickly stepped back. Han Jia’s daggers were hidden by its sides like a poisonous snake waiting to strike. If the opponent came back for him, the dagger would deliver a fatal blow.

The black and white mech vanished into the darkness.

Han Jia disappeared as well, hiding behind a stone pillar. It barely stood still when Rui Bing, in Guardian, came back to Han Jia’s shoulder.

After a full half minute, Ye Chong said, “They’re gone.”

Rui Bing was breathing quickly. She had been stepping left and right avoiding her opponent’s attacks, and found herself fatigued. Besides, unlike Ye Chong, this was her first time facing such a cold battle. The thought of death was also tiring her quickly. She would have fainted by now if not for her strong determination.

The two of them were sharing a direct comms channel, and Rui Bing’s short breathing was heard clearly.

After a long moment of silence, Ye Chong suddenly asked out of nowhere, “Are you alright?”

Rui Bing froze for a second before replying calmly, “I’m fine.” Guardian’s soft mask traced every detail on Rui Bing’s face, and it was now etched with a barely visible smile in the darkness.

“I see, let’s go then.”

The two mechs that led them so far were dead now, right at a junction with many branches to choose from. There was nothing left for them to do but choose one at random and enter it. Han Jia carried Rui Bing silently as they advanced further into the sewer.

Soon, Ye Chong found that they had gotten lucky, because the number of holographic cameras along the way had suddenly increased. It seemed that they were heading in the right direction.

Ye Chong was not unsure if the holographic scanning could detect Han Jia and Guardian now. He did not know how those two mechs managed to see them earlier. Of course, it was most likely that they were equipped with a very powerful holographic scanning system.

However, now that they had come so far, it would be foolish to turn back.

They followed the sewer tunnel, which was beginning to form a slope upwards. The water level dropped until finally they could see the ground beneath. There were clear signs that someone had been keeping the place clean.

They reached an alloy door, which stood wide open before them. After some thought, Ye Chong and Rui Bing decided to enter. As they flew past the alloy door, Ye Chong found the thickness of the door surprising. It was 10 meters thick, enough to block even the lower grade cannons.

Beyond the door, the space opened up into a round hall. No one was there. The floor was a mess, scattered with chips of all colors.

Ye Chong moved carefully inside, and his expression turned grim. This was a laboratory. There were many virus cultivation equipment lying around, but they were all destroyed now. The containers he saw were all empty as well.

After passing by a few rooms similar to the first, Ye Chong and Rui Bing still did not met anyone. The place was obviously a central laboratory. Such a large central laboratory built underground must have been expensive.

The innermost room was an archive room. Unlike the other rooms, it was left untouched, with no signs of things being moved around.

Ye Chong came out of Han Jia, and Rui Bing withdrew Guardian. They studied the archive room with interest. The room was simple, with an empty cupboard at human’s height standing in a corner. The rest of the room was filled with all kinds of chips, arranged based on their serial numbers.

At the center was a holographic screen, showing all the feeds from the holographic cameras. Ye Chong noticed that one of the rows of holographic feeds was quickly disappearing one by one.

Suddenly, two figures appeared on the holographic screen. One was Engradie Academy’s Old Xu, while the other was a middle-aged man. They were heading towards the archive room where Ye Chong and Rui Bing were.

Ye Chong looked around him and stopped at the cupboard. It was tall enough, and large enough to fit them both snugly.

“Come in,” Ye Chong went in first, and yelled to Rui Bing.

Rui Bing saw the meagre space left in the cupboard, a faint blush crawling up her neck. She hesitated for two seconds before squeezing in.

Ye Chong quickly closed the cupboard.

It was cramped inside as they were both squeezed tightly together. Rui Bing dared not move. Any movement from either of them made her uneasy, and her heart would beat even faster.

They were too close together. Rui Bing could even feel Ye Chong’s warm breath on her neck.

A strange tension was growing between them.

“You’re shivering,” Ye Chong said.

“I’m not,” Rui Bing said with forced determination.

“You’re definitely shivering, at 92 to 136 tremors per minute,” Ye Chong said this with unusual certainty. Given a watch, he would be able to narrow down his estimation even further to a more accurate figure.

“I said I’m not,” Rui Bing insisted with a tiny voice, biting her lips as her cheeks reddened considerably. The tight space did not even allow her to lower her head as she continued to helplessly shiver.

Ye Chong could not understand why Rui Bing would blatantly lie, but he did not ask further.

They both quieted down. Being so close together, they could hear each other’s beating heart. Ye Chong felt his mouth went inexplicably dry. His breath turned hotter, like fire, and his breathing grew heavy.

As if sensing the changes in Ye Chong, Rui Bing’s breathing shortened as well.

hey kept silent. Only their heavy breathing could be heard clearly in the cupboard.

Rui Bing felt like her whole body was burning up. If she looked in the mirror now, she would see her skin all red and burning hot.

Ye Chong smelled a distant but familiar and sweet scent once again.

It was like setting his belly on fire. Ye Chong could not help but lower his head and did the exact same thing he did that day – he homed in on Rui Bing’s exposed neck and gave a gentle lick!

“It’s the same vague but familiar sensation …” Ye Chong thought to himself, his memories of that past incident now rushing back to him.

Rui Bing’s whole body tensed up like she was struck by lightning. Her hands held tightly onto Ye Chong’s hands.

Half a minute later …

“Your hands are very soft,” Ye Chong commented objectively.

Rui Bing quickly let go of his hands, her heart racing like mad.

Just then, Ye Chong heard two people coming towards them. He immediately shifted his attention and focused on eavesdropping.

Old Xu and the middle-aged man entered the archive room.

Old Xu sighed, “So it really happened. I knew that the Gray Valley people will not just stand by and watch. They’re too reckless.”

The middle-aged man’s expression turned grim as he said, “Yeah, these people, they’re too ambitious. Now that something went wrong, they all vanished just like that.”

“You better leave too,” Old Xu said this with a helpless sigh and waved his hand, “Everything they took is fake. The core information is still here. You can find them, the serial numbers are ZX7868076, SD7865468 and RM087655. These three chips hold the core information. I always knew that there’s a mole in the organization.”

The middle-aged man shook his head and said, “I’m not running away too. Much of this is our fault, dying here would be fitting.”

“You’re still young,” Old Xu sighed again, “You still have a long future ahead of you.”

“What future?” The middle-aged man laughed ghastly, “I still don’t know who spread the virus. What an evil b*stard! I’ll never be able to live in peace, so why not just end this now. Sigh, if not because of this, those people inside would not have noticed us so soon.”

Old Xu took a glance at the holographic screen and said plainly, “They’re here.”

“Well, I have no complaints dying in their hands,” the middle-aged man said calmly, “They must have killed all our experiment subjects.”

His expression turned into one of pride. “Humph, if I have another half a year, these experiment subjects will definitely be on their level. It’s a pity … Sigh, perhaps this is fate,” the middle-aged man said this with waning interest, “Back then, they chased me out of Gray Valley. I thought that one day, perhaps I could … Sigh, in the end, I’ll still die in their hands.”

“The ones coming must be Sentry and Graycrawler. Sigh, just two of them is enough to bring us to our current situation. The ones in the know must have been wary of us, to send them two here. Humph, we would not have been forced into our current situation so easily, if not for that mole.” Old Xu took another glance at the holographic screen, still furious with the mole.

When Old Xu mentioned the names of the two mechs, the middle-aged man jerked slightly.

Rui Bing did not hear them at all, her attention still focused on Ye Chong. Seeing Ye Chong focusing on something else made her calmer, for some reason. She could feel Ye Chong’s heartbeat, and wished that this moment would last forever.

Ye Chong finally understood something from their conversation. These two people must be deeply connected with Gray Valley. Ye Chong suddenly recalled the two Gray Valley people he met on the starship before, and thought again of the two mechs he encountered earlier. Just how were these people connected to each other?

Two mechs entered the archive room. They were the two mechs that Ye Chong and Rui Bing fought against earlier.

Old Xu and the middle-age man faced the two mechs with calm faces.

The middle-aged man looked to the black and white mech and mocked, “So? Is the great Bei Guang and his Sentry, Gray Valley’s top fighter, unwilling to meet an old friend?”

A short silence followed.

Suddenly, the black and white mech’s pilot cabin opened up, and a man slipped out of it. The other mech pointed its weapon at the two men, warning them against any tricks.

If Ye Chong were seeing this, he would be surprised to find that the mech pilot of the black and white mech was actually the middle-aged man of the two from Gray Valley that he saw on the starship.

“Moyan, I never thought we’d meet under such circumstances,” Bei Guang said after much hesitation. Ye Chong recognized his voice from the mech pilot of the black and white mech who spoke to him earlier.

Ning Moyan’s expression was unreadable. He was silent for a full half a minute before mocking himself, “Yes, fate is truly unpredictable. The once penniless dull man is now the top fighter of Gray Valley. Me, on the other hand, once a genius, was kicked out of Gray Valley. Haha, now, I’m even brought down to this miserable situation. Fate is cruel.”

“Moyan, I know that you’re not responsible for what happened back then,” Bei Guang said this sincerely to Ning Moyan, “I only have one question for you.”

“And that is?” Ning Moyan lifted his eyebrow sarcastically.

“Was it you who spreaded the virus?” Bei Guang asked in a low voice.

A great anger rose within Ning Moyan. He wanted to return a few sarcastic words, but he saw Bei Guang’s expression. Old memories came back to him. The image of two little boys playing together touched the softer part of his heart, and that great anger vanished without a trace.

He could not help but spoke the truth, “Guang, it was not me! I swear it.”

Bei Guang looked meaningfully at Ning Moyna, and Ning Moyan did not avert his gaze. After a while, Bei Guang nodded and said, “Moyan, don’t worry, I will find the person responsible for spreading the virus.”

Ning Moyan knew that his once friend always kept his word. He nodded, and did not say more.

Bei Guang turned to the other man and said with a hint of respect, “Old Xu, I don’t understand at all why you would be involved in this!”

“You’ll find out later,” Old Xu said calmly, “I’ll just warn you a bit, those people in the know, hehe …” Abruptly, Old Xu stopped there, and it was a long moment before he sighed again, “I won’t tell. For you, the lesser you know the better.”

“Guang, don’t investigate further into this matter. It’s more complicated than it seems,” Ning Moyan advised, but he could tell from the light in Bei Guang’s eyes that his words did nothing to convince him. He knew this man inside out, being his very close friend. Once his eyes lit up like that, there was no stopping him.

Old Xu sighed softly and looked at Bei Guang. He said calmly, “Do what you have to. I’m not going back to Gray Valley to meet those people. It’s simpler to just die here.”

Ning Moyan showed the same calmness as he spoke, “Yeah, if you’re really trying to help me, then do it. There’s only suffering back there, and you know it. Hehe, and they might just not get what they wished for.”

Bei Guang knew that if he brought them back, they would probably be greeted with endless torture. His expression dimmed as his eyes betrayed his pain and sadness. He looked to Ning Moyan meaningfully, and Ning Moyan looked back at him with acceptance.

It was as though they were back to their youthful days of fun.

Bei Guang gritted his teeth and turned around. He waved his hand in a sharp jerk.

Two red beams shot through the dead center of Ning Moyan’s and Old Xu’s foreheads.

As he turned back around, Bei Guang was already in tears. He walked to Ning Moyan’s corpse quietly and kneeled down. Bang bang bang! He kowtowed three times, leaving his forehead bloody.

His face was still covered in tears as Guang Bei stared silently at Ning Moyan’s body on the ground. Ning Moyan’s face looked calm, without any trace of pain.

After a full three minutes, Guang Bei finally stood up and slipped into his mech.

“Squad Captain, this place …” Through the comms, his comrade asked carefully. Anyone could see that Guang Bei was now greatly devastated.

He knew of the friendship between Bei Guang and Ning Moyan. They had grown up together. Guang Bei was honest and a bit rigid, while Ning Moyan was hailed as a genius. They shared a close friendship, akin to brothers. Guang Bei’s rigidity had made him a bullying target, but Ning Moyan had always defended him.

Guang Bei’s current achievement was closely related to Ning Moyan. Guang Bei had always trusted Ning Moyan since they were young. His training schedule was completely designed by Ning Moyan. When he first met the squad captain and before they began receiving official training, he remembered seeing the squad captain still training according to Ning Moyan’s suggestions.

Later on, for some unknown reason, Ning Moyan was exiled from Gray Valley. Guang Bei might be rigid, bu he was also extremely hardworking and reliable, so he continued to rise through the ranks. When he was finally given Sentry, he became one of the top mech pilots in Gray Valley.

“Destroy this place. All the useful things here have already been moved out,” Guang Bei said solemnly. He was still deep in pain.

After rapidly setting up the ultra-strong explosives, the two mechs quickly left the archive room.

Just after they left, Ye Chong rushed out of the cupboard. He remembered the three serial numbers that Old Xu mentioned clearly.

He ignored Rui Bing and quickly searched for those three chips among the other chips in the room.

When Ye Chong went out of the cupboard, Rui Bing felt a momentary loss, but quickly gathered herself.

He had a blue, yellow and red chip. After double checking their serial numbers, Ye Chong felt overjoyed and quickly deployed his mech. “Let’s go,” he said as he slipped into his mech. Rui Bing also deployed Guardian and resumed her position on Han Jia’s shoulder.

Down in the underground sewer, Han Jia carried Rui Bing and accelerated to its maximum speed.

Ye Chong and Rui Bing both knew that time was of the essence! They had to reach safety before the bombs exploded.

e Chong and Rui Bing returned to Ze Xi Academy looking pathetic. In the end, they were still caught in the heatwave of the explosion, covering them with dust. The ultra-strong explosives were powerful, raising a huge gray cloud that could even be seen from afar. This surprised a lot of people, not knowing what was happening. However, when Ye Chong and Rui Bing both returned looking miserable not long after the explosions, sharp people like Bi Bo immediately suspected that they might be involved with that incident.

However, he was not foolish enough to ask Ye Chong about it. Now at Ze Xi Academy, Ye Chong’s role was irreplaceable. Ze Xi Academy’s higher-ups were mostly dead from the chaos earlier. Just when everyone was feeling lost, Ye Chong had appeared like a hero, turning the tide against the mutants. Additonally, the hundreds of war mech pilots that were protecting them at the academy were all here because of Ye Chong.

Here was a powerful combatant, capable of synthesizing the strange but deadly Bluefire chemical. His background was a mystery. Now, he had become an idol for the survivors of Ze Xi Academy.

Only Ye Chong, Rui Bing and Fei Si were in the laboratory. Fei Si stared at the photon processor, her face drained of blood as she muttered, “How could they …”

Ye Chong was also not looking so well. The three chips that he got from the underground base had all the information on the later part of their decade-long experiments. They had been experimenting on humans. No less than 300 had died from their experiments. It was terrifying.

Ye Chong frowned as he noticed Fei Si’s pale face. He spoke up, “Now is not the time for this. Can you find a cure for the virus?” It would take time to fully digest the information in the chips, but there were more important matters to attend to.

Fei Si composed herself then, still looking a little pale, but she considered for a moment before saying, “Once I know its structure, the rest will be easier. I’ll make the cure now.” She remembered then that many students outside could die at any moment.

She began to work in earnest. Fei Si was a real workaholic, as evident from her current single status. While her teacher had once advised her to spend more time on her personal matters, she still continued to work. After her teacher’s passing, she had dived deeper into work in her grief. However, it was her determination that led her to be as capable as she was at her young age.

Seeing Fei Si deep in concentration, Ye Chong took out the chips from the photon processor and put them in his bag. He exchanged a glance with Rui Bing, and they both left the lab.

Just as they were outside, Ye Chong and Rui Bing both heard a commotion.

When the people outside saw Ye Chong, they yelled, “He’s here, he’s back out here.”

Ye Chong frowned. A group of people were talking with the mech pilots. The 900 mech pilots that Ye Chong brought with him had suffered greatly, losing nearly 300 lives, about a third of the entire force. The Shi Family had suffered the least, proving that they were the most combat capable of the three families.

Bi Bo approached Ye Chong and spoke softly, “I think they’re trouble.”

Seeing Ye Chong’s arrival, the leader of the group approached Ye Chong and studied him for awhile before speaking, “You the one who made the blue fire?” The big guy looked strong, his muscles bulging out from his combat suit.

The people around quieted down at the mention of that question. The entire academy building fell silent. Many of them looked angry, as the man had spoken rudely.

Aside from Ye Chong, Rui Bing’s eyes gleamed coldly.

Ye Chong ignored him as his eyes swept across the leaders of the three troops. The leaders of the three troops avoided his gaze.

“Who let them in?” Ye Chong asked calmly in a voice free of intonation, but his words were powerful. Everyone held their breaths.

The leaders looked away, as if they did not hear him.

Ye Chong nodded, and said plainly, “So this is how you treat your orders. As expected of war mech pilots.” Ye Chong’s expression was empty, like he was only commenting on the weather.

The people around looked at the troop leaders with despise.

In the He Yue Galaxy, staff mech pilots were different from average mech pilots. Staff mech plots enjoyed better benefits and higher status compared to other mech pilots. They were professional combatants. However, staff mech pilots were also subject to stricter discipline. One of the most important rules was to always obey their orders.

Disobeying orders was a serious matter for staff mech pilots. It was no wonder that the people around looked at them with distaste.

The leaders looked miserable. They were unwilling to do this in the first place, but due to their orders, they were forced to protect Ye Chong and Rui Bing. They also took to heart how Ye Chong had easily escaped six of their mechs earlier like it was but a game, and using Valiance at that. To them, it was an act of public humiliation. The man had other mechs but had chosen to use Valiance, what was that if not a deliberate choice to embarrass them?

They had not stopped this group of people from entering with the intention to make things awkward for Ye Chong.

However, the seemingly rigid man had now retaliated with such sharp words. Accusing staff mech pilots for disobeying orders was a serious matter. The hostile looks they got from the people around them had driven them into a difficult situation.

The Shi Family’s troop leader stepped forward to justify themselves, “You did not order for us to stop anyone from entering.” Bi Bo could not help but humphed coldly at that. Given the circumstances, it was only natural for the staff mech pilots to be vigilant and not let anyone enter as they pleased. Explicit orders were not necessary for this precaution.

“Oh,” Ye Chong nodded, eyeing the leaders again until they felt uncomfortable. Ye Chong’s next words forced them into a tight corner, “Then I now order you to get rid of them from here.”

The leaders looked to each other, aghast.

The big guy was furious. “Heh, what arrogance. Humph, even if Shi Sen was here, he wouldn’t dare speak to me like this. Humph, just who do you think you are?” Shi Sen was one of Shi Family’s powerful members, and was very well known. The big guy said this with towering pride.

Rui Bing, who had been silently watching all this while, could not stand it any longer. Her eyes gleamed icily as the neat bangs on her forehead swept up. She darted forward, reaching the big guy before her to slap him. Rui Bing who had refined herself much both in terms of combat and manners, would normally not be so easily angered. Even if someone yelled in her face, she could ignore them completely. However, for some reason, she could not stand seeing someone speaking so rudely to Ye Chong.

Rui Bing moved like lightning. It was all so sudden that the big guy could barely raise his hands to block her. Rui Bing twisted her wrists and evaded his block.

Piak! It was a solid, hard slap on the big guy’s face.

Rui Bing was angry with his rudeness, and had used some force. The big guy’s face was imprinted with a clear palm. The big guy was stupefied, and could barely believe what had happened. Rui Bing was back at Ye Chong’s side, as if she had not moved at all.

Everyone gasped!

The leaders were also shocked by Rui Bing’s reaction. The cold woman in white was amazing. Her attack was like a lightning strike. If it were them, they would never be able to block her. If it was not a slap, but a chop to the big guy’s throat … The leaders could imagine the sound of broken bones, and their hearts chilled.

The big guy’s surprise quickly turned to humiliation and anger. He spoke through gritted teeth, “Alright, fck, to think that someone’s bllsy enough to slap me. Hehe …” He wanted to say more, but seeing the white-robed woman standing beside Ye Chong made him swallow the rest of his words.

“Little sh*t, how about a mech duel?” The big guy challenged. Rui Bing heard the big guy’s insult for Ye Chong, and raised her eyebrow, pushing the big guy to take a few steps back.

Ye Chong turned to Bi Bo and asked, “What’s a mech duel?”

Bi Bo took a glance at the big guy and replied quickly, “A mech duel match between two people with their respective mechs. There are no specific rules to it, but no one is allowed to interfere. Both sides place their own bets.”

“Why would I want to have a mech duel with him?” Ye Chong asked.

Bi Bo was speechless. The people around them watched Ye Chong like he was an alien. The big guy laughed, “Hehe, what a coward, are you man? What a f*cking weakling …” Seeing Rui Bing raising her brow again, the big guy quickly shut up.

Bi Bo was vexed. How should he try to explain this? After a long moment, he tried with, “If you win, you can obtain whatever he bet in the duel, like money, for example, or mechs, or other things.” In the He Yue Galaxy, mech duels were a commonality. Most people would not shy away from a mech duel, since mech pilots were widely perceived to be brave.

“Oh,” Ye Chong finally showed some interest. He turned to the big guy and asked, “What do you have?”

lady appeared from the back of the big guy, “Greetings sir, what could I provide you I wonder?” She said with a smile of a gorgeous twenty-five. Her short hair swung, her blue suit revealed a fair white shirt which the top had been partially unbuttoned, exposing her collar bones. The fitting skirt engulfed her bouncing pound of fleshes, her calves were a sexy screamer. How alluring.

Any trainee in their puberty would be easily hooked away by her simple bow. It was only a matter of seconds before she became the center of everyone’s attention. Her smile remained as gentle as her expressive eyes stared upon Ye Chong. The big guy withdrew himself the moment the lady made her debut.

The stares of the trainees were as if a thunderous shout from them saying, “Provide you yourself! Nothing else!” Even Bi Bo, who had gotten used to all sorts of women, was having his heart raced a little.

Ye Chong frowned, “What can you guys provide then?”

Oh? The lady’s smile bloomed. Her eyes rolled interestingly, “Instead of that, why don’t you tell us what do you need, so that we can see if there is any assistance we could provide?” It was a trade, a business from the very beginning. Whoever flashed their trump card would be destined to lose! The lady was clearly very experienced in this, and Bi Bo fancied that.

“State your catalogue,” Ye Chong shook his head, knowing if he really listed out everything he needed, the lady might as well carried the entire cargo to him right away. Well he did not know what exactly he wanted at the moment, to be honest. And these men who joined the scene abruptly, hell knows what they aimed here… Wait, the big guy said something about the Bluefire. Did they come for the Bluefire reagent?

That chemical substance was nothing valuable in particular to Ye Chong. So much work just for Bluefire? But how did they know about Bluefire?

Meanwhile, Susan was getting irritated by this ignorant man. Just today she suddenly received a transmission from the authority, demanding her to head to Ze Xi academy with her men, look for a peculiarly ugly man and obtain the formula that could produce the phenomena of Dimming Blue. As communicative systems of most planets had been damaged, Zhou Jian planet was nearly utterly offline with the last few places remained connected to the world in signals so weak that not even the Virtual World survived from this and visuals could not be even transmitted directly to Susan. She eventually had to come all the way to Zhou Jian herself to get things done. It was quite a miracle that Bi Bo’s stream was of private connection and the broadcast was successful. Unlike Bi Bo, Susan was running out of luck. The moment she arrived, Xiong Mocong just had to ruin her life. “You filthy pig,” cursed Susan softly. Xiong Mocong possessed quite an unconventional rank in the organization, in a way that he was not a subordinate of Susan despite being under her supervision, so Susan technically could hardly enforce anything on him.

At least the situation remained under control. It was a relief to her when she was informed that a mech duel was going to happen instead. Xiong Mocong was still something at mech duels in spite of that bad temper of his.

All she had to do at the moment was to lure this boy into the lair, since clearly this boy did not look interested in a street fight without any form of incentive. This ugly boy however, gave her a different kind of sensation, a very… very unique atmosphere he exuded that was unfitting to his visual age.

The white-garbed girl by his side was also a fascination, that Xiong Mocong almost got knocked out at first. Knowing how skillful Xiong Mocong might not be as competent in a hand-on-hand, but he should not be this bad… Such horror that even a fully grown man could not hold a single attack of hers…

The remaining 600 men behind were none of her concern, as she could easily discern the dispute among them at first glance, they would be an brittle wall to break, easy peasy lemon squeezy.

“How about we heat things up? You win, you get a fancy new ride. Let’s see… the new Phantom-3000? The fearsome Genocide? Or you prefer the classic model Celestial Terra-cotta?” Listed Susan some mouth-watering bets on the duel, which none of them were ordinary models at the street market. All of those models could go easily 5 million points for sale, while being the dream ride of all pilots.

“Holy Molly, did I hear Phantom-3000?”

“I saved up for my entire life just to get a battery for Genocide!”

“Lucky boy.”

“Wooooow.”

The exclamation brewed along with whispers in the surrounding, including Bi Bo with his eyes wide open. “Such daring bet…” Whispered he, as getting intrigued of this mature-looking girl.

Well, Ye Chong might be jumping into his mech now if it was in the past. But ever since that night he knocked a grand fortune, few million points were a thing in him no longer, especially when he lacked everything else but a mech. He had enough funds to get him a handful of these so-called dream rides.

Guo the accountant of the group actually prepared Ye Chong the Great a debit card stored with a hundred million, in a fear that this great man would be at short of pennies when he left Planet Yi Ju. Nonetheless, knowing this great man was also quite a clumsy and careless one, the kind accountant broke the figure into 10 different cards stored with ten millions each. But then Ye Chong felt that was a little unnecessarily too much for his pocket to handle, so he brought 5 cards instead. Well, with 5 times ten millions each, 50 millions were more than enough to buy a dozen of these fancy rides. So, the answer was clearly…

“No thanks.” The deal was off.

The audience roared again upon seeing this boy refusing such a juicy, probably once-in-a-lifetime deal, so was Susan who was literally stunned on spot.

Okay, which sane person would refuse a condition like this? Was he fearing that he could not offer a similar bet? Hmm, well then, “Are you afraid that you could not wager something even close to this? No worries, we do not expect that, we only expect you to-”

“Was it the formula for Bluefire?” interrupted Ye Chong.

Wait, how did he know our intention? Susan was shocked as her popped eyes ran through this boy with an unappealing appearance. Hmmm, he knew everything. Gasp! That means I had been in the inferior position since the very beginning… Speaking of it… I knew nothing of this boy…

“What’s your name? If you would so kindly tell,” bowed Susan sincerely, with her Great Valley stirring up a commotion among the spectators again. Ye Chong had ascended to formally a position of an actual opponent in her list now.

“Chen Mu.” A new entry to Ye Chong’s tradition of setting up pseudonym.

“Very well, Mr. Chen,” smiled Susan sweetly, “Apparently Mr. Chen is incurious about our duel. How about the condition to be made by Mr. Chen instead? We are still on a deal here, aren’t we?”

“One billion?” stated Ye Chong flatly.

The condition was a noise-killer as people froze their lips looking at Ye Chong. It was dead silent that somehow one could perceive that flappy sound of Bi Bo’s jaw dropping.

Susan’s expression stiffened, “Hah… Mr. Chen, I beg your pardon, maybe I was a little too consumed by the deal did I hear the figure-”

“A billion. No more or less. Well you could also cut the duel and purchase my formula with the price instead.” His tone was indifferent, although feeling unconvinced of the potential value of this ordinary formula. But if he were to sell it, he will sell it at a good price.

“I’m very sorry…,” shook Susan, “The offer from Mr. Chen was rather overwhelming that our budget could not cover.” It was such a grand amount that she had to report to the authority to seek advice. “You screwed pig! Is this a daylight robbery or something? A billion? Why don’t you join the billion of galaxy instead?” bellowed Xiong Mocong.

“I’m fine if you have lost interest in the deal,” replied Ye Chong.

And Xiong Mocong almost could feel his fist launching at the shameless merchant before him, but Rui Bing’s stare was an extinguisher to his rage. The lad was a pain nail to knock, he got to behave himself. So he stood there, trying to act unmoved.

“I see,” Susan giggled. “Mr. Chen has such insightful thoughts in marketing. We could accept that outstanding offer but how would we be able to get a billion in such a short amount of time?” she said as the eyes glanced at the 600 men of Ye Chong. Dammit, I should have brought more men… Exclaimed Susan in her mind, as she once thought anybody in a young folks’ home like Ze Xi academy would be literally a nobody, but this boy seemed to be a somebody. Susan got cautious since she did not hear everything from the authority in fact, thanks to the bad signals during transmission. But she could perceive that “get the formula by hook or by crook” underlying tone at least.

“How about some of your property?” Suggested Ye Chong, based on the knowledge he recently obtained from society. Apparently “waiving property for trade”, “barter” and “treaty” were a thing in history, especially during wartime.

Susan’s pupils rolled as she forced a smile, “That’s a brilliant idea, we could consider the deal if that’s what Mr. Chen desires. Hmmm, we do have a Topazite mine somewhere in Planet Tai Hui, though the expanse was not great, it could be sold for more than a billion. I wonder if Mr. Chen is pleased with our kindest offer?”

Topazite? The keyword struck Ye Chong’s heart. It was a fairly common ore, nothing really amazing of it in particular. That was not the main shocker.

Upon seeing the tiny flinch he made, Bi Bo went and briefed him, “Planet Tai Hui is a pretty remote planet, situated closely to the Calamitous Asteroid Belt. While its population is low, being mostly the pirates, they would restore their supplies there, thus the horrible safety there.”

Bi Bo was expecting a proper decline from Ye Chong after hearing all these threatening description, who knows, “Good.” A straight reply from him…

Why you little prick stop spoiling my dea- huh?

Susan was irritated by Bi Bo’s unhelpful elaboration but Ye Chong actually accepted the offer straightaway, “Did Mr. Chen give a ‘yes’ on our deal?” She could not believe her ears.

“Yes,” Ye Chong nodded.

HAH! Susan nearly skipped as she walked. The mine had been long abandoned by her organization and never once she would see a fool falling for it today. It would be alright even if they lose. Everybody else seemed to be thinking the same, given that their eyes were in a bewilderment of seeing a drunktard nodding to a bogus deal.

“Why don’t we have the deal now?” Susan seriously hopped that they could just make the exchange right now. Less hassle, less risk.

“Nope. We are dueling,” replied Ye Chong affirmatively.

“Well, we would need to sign the contract then.” Fearing that Ye Chong would change his mind, she quickly sent her men to retrieve the deed to the mine.

“Fair enough.”

And so both of them signed the contract after the pilots returned with the deed to the mine. Ye Chong had also written down the formula of Bluefire reagent.

“Xiong, if you could win, ten millions.” A brief sentence from Susan ignited Xiong Mocong’s will to fight. He so would love to pounce on that guy and shred him into a gazillion pieces right when the duel began.

Xiong Mocong deployed his mech.

“That’s the Steel Samurai!”

“Holy Molly! It’s the Steel Samurai!”

The audience roared again, as none of them expected that graceless-looking hulk would be the famous Steel Samurai. The Steel Samurai was known to be under none of the aristocrats the whole time, yet he was there with a group. Which aristocrat does the group belong to? They were actually able to net the Steel Samurai?

The renowned fight of Steel Samurai was the time he smashed 21 mechs, alone. Unlike its fictional naming, the fight was as real as it could get. During the time he was on his way heading home on a spacecraft. And that was when he encountered around a hundred mechs of a tiny group of pirates who held immense firepower despite the measly number, since among that hundred, 25 of them were advanced models.

The spacecraft was only armed with 12 pilots that time. So what the legendary Steel Samurai did was, he led an army of 12 and faced the pirates boldly. With his formidability, he destroyed 21 mechs, all advanced models, with one of them being the leader. The happening was streamed and there were at least 500 witnesses to the battle.

And thanks to this fight, the once-a-little-star had become the superstar. Well, a hot-tempered superstar too, that not many aristocrats or major organizations could please him and he chose to be the lone wolf.

As far as you could observe, people address heroes by the name of the mech, not the pilot himself in reality, like Kyaji.

Looking at his own mech, Xiong Mocong’s eyes had changed, as lustered with pride and overflowing will, coated in sedate solemnity.

Steel Samurai was the name of Xiong Mocong’s mech. As its name had suggested, it was in fact a humanoid model with a steel mask covering like a samurai. The limbs were as bulky as Xiong Mocong’s physique, with the shield on the left, the sword on the right – the classic setup for samurai. The surface of the body was not texturized, though one could see the tiny cuts as the badge of glory being the great samurai. Every inch of the mech was pretty well-maintained, with the joints exceptionally glowing as new.

The model was simple but no one would dare to give a disdainful look on, as the moment it stood, the history of war it had undergone could be smelled. A true war machine it was, with no pointless adornment, while setting off a cold dignity.

Ye Chong deployed Han Jia calmly.

Han Jia, like a blossom it bloomed, had once again made its debut being the butterfly of the bolts and nuts.

t was a strange fight, an unfair fight if one were to emphasize since both parties shared a drastic difference in size. The Steel Samurai was as if the hulk in rage, ready for destruction, whereas Han Jia was as if the lady in vain, ready for dance-instruction. Interestingly, both pilots were similarly different too, in which Xiong Mocong had the bulkiness of Steel Samurai and Ye Chong suddenly looked so feeble when he stood against Xiong Mocong with that thin body of his.

Bi Bo was ready. His journalist’s soul was calling. He would be in remorse for the rest of his life if he were to miss this duel without the camera!

Quickly he took out his camera and was going to give a press on the ON button. Smash. A dagger came from no where and the camera splintered.

“What th-” Nobody could stand their expensive, beloved photographic apparatus being smashed for no reason, even for Mr. Good-tempered like Bi Bo, he lifted his head, was going to throw a tantrum, yet he was stopped, as seeing Susan’s sweet smile as she played with the other dagger of hers, “Little boy, it’s never a good habit to sneak a shot on others alright?”

“Ha. Hahaha….” His rage had vaporized into an awkward laugh. She was right, Bi Bo even despised the paparazzi-like behavior himself. He zipped his mouth and sucked it up.

“Start!”

Both sides stampeded and jumped into the cabin. Every second in a mech duel counts! The time one took to enter the cabin would be the top determiner in the outcome.

90% of the pilots who died in a fight against the martial arts neglected such brief process.

Xiong Mocong might have a cumbersome looking body, he was truly dexterous for he was nearly as fast as Ye Chong, in a ground-shattering movement however… It felt like a plough machine, except armed with a turbo. Ye Chong was quite the contrary as he moved like a phantom silently.

Ye Chong was slightly ahead of Xiong Mocong, even though Xiong Mocong had butted into the cabin before Ye Chong managed to sit tight.

The first stage of a mech duel ended with a draw. It was no surprise for the Ze Xi trainees to see Ye Chong leading, since they had been well-convinced by his performance during the war, but it was a little distressing to see how the triumph he made was negligible at first stage.

Xiong Mocong thought otherwise however, as his glance convinced him the fact that this punk turned out to be slightly faster in action, which gave him a skip in his heartbeat. He had been a freelancing pilot before joining the organization so he had gotten used to the days of getting into a street fight taken in the form of a duel, which was the main source of his income. To ensure the money flowing, he worked hard on nailing every duel yet it was the first time he encountered someone who got into position faster than him.

So was this punk truly unlike what he looked?

But he no longer had the chance to retreat now. He settled down and skillfully activated the engine.

I guess the punk should also be warming up now. Thought Xiong Mocong as habitually he glanced at the screen, which gave him a flinch.

The screen… is empty?

Wait what?

The first deduction that appeared in his mind was, the foe had hidden himself. But that was not possible, the foe could hide but never possibly this fast. He might be a few seconds ahead of Xiong Mocong but those few seconds were not sufficient to perform a camouflage, not even for a elite pilot.

Is my detection system jammed? Maybe… although I clearly remember the amount of maintenance I worked on this baby. Don’t tell me the machine just has to break down at this very nick of time. My body is not ready for this.

Xiong Mocong was experienced enough to know to turn out the photon-detection mode. The arena was not boundless like the space, so it should work, although Xiong Mocong did not see this as a good beginning for a duel.

Right at that moment, a gorgeous-looking mech filled the entire screen, which gave Xiong Mocong a shocker as his hands reflexively bounced on the control panel.

Such speed. The foe has already gotten right into my face!?

He reacted promptly with a standard stance by his Steel Samurai to block the incoming blow.

Thus! The Steel Samurai was pushed a few steps back. Han Jia might have a smaller physique than the Steel Samurai, its featherweight still packed a punch under velocity.

The Steel Samurai slightly tilted its body and repositioned itself into another stance. Thup! The next blow was blocked successfully. The pair of daggers of Han Jia however left two slashes on the shield of the samurai.

Such defense… Ye Chong was amazed as he performed a quick flip at Han Jia. Its butterfly wings quivered frantically and zapped to the back of the samurai.

“Jesus…” Shrieked Bi Bo, even Susan nearly tripped herself seeing the speed. Did the feebly pretty mech just break the law of aerodynamic?!

Impossible, how? Bi Bo who was well educated by his father believed his own insight in the law of physics.

Xiong Mocong lost the sight of the mech. The back! His instinct shouted and intuitively he made a front tilt, a graceless self-tripping.

A slash of shadow swung right pass the neck of the samurai, a split second before the samurai was nearly beheaded.

Such opponent. Xiong Mocong went fully alarmed, as realizing the skills of the foe being way beyond his imagination. It was as if the outcome had been determined from the very beginning. The two simple blows from the foe could be very well defined as blows by a phantom. He would have surrendered if he was not at his very prime today.

The Steel Samurai lifted itself by the arms on the ground, with the additional engines all turned on, as it began rolling away like a pinball.

I would be shredded if I did not pull myself away from this punk.

His plan was overthrown as Ye Chong did not intend to spare him, being a person uninterested of the Tom & Jerry he was. His hands flipped through the control panel. All engines of Han Jia were on as it zoomed towards the Steel Samurai.

Thup! Thump! Thup! Thump! Wham! Bam… a barrage of attack rained upon the guard of the samurai, about 16 times.

It was a miracle that he could take down every hit, even the audience exclaimed with few rounds of applause heard.

It was also a miracle that one could make a barrage of attack in such speed. It could have been the maximum of humanity! Be it the timing or the angle, the attack was impeccable, whereas the samurai – despite being put under such a terrible situation – still was able to perform a perfect guard.

The sturdiness of the foe had stimulated Ye Chong, as his hands stormed upon the control panel, into countless afterimages the input was punched. Han Jia’s next shower of attack followed, a frenzy one too, tracing the escaping samurai.

Han Jia would be a killing machine when put into a close-ranged fight.

The giant wings of Han Jia had been withdrawn, while the 12 tentacles were fluttering.

Ye Chong’s eyes were glued upon the screen. He too was at his maximum. The APM was so high that one could barely see the lining of his hands on the control panel. The afterimages seemed to have disappeared. It was this fast.

Pair of daggers, 12 spiked tentacles, kneecap attack, elbow blow, diving kick, soccer strike, the moves were chained after one another, as they raided upon the Steel Samurai.

Xiong Mocong was somehow excited by the battle, as instinct seemed to have fully taken over his mind since the continuous attack of Han Jia was already beyond the maximum of his his reaction speed, only intuition could save him. In layman’s term, he basically had lost the control, he had no idea what was going on.

Every spectator there, including Bi Bo and Susan were hardly able to witness the scene, as the Steel Samurai was being thrashed by a delicate-looking mech, like a punching bag.

Ye Chong was feeling pumped as he seemed to be breaking the APM cap. Unfortunately he was so engaged in the battle that he did not notice it at that moment.

Terrifying attack, yet also a terrifying defense there were.

Both mechs were monstrous in the eyes of the witnesses.

Xiong Mocong’s nostrils felt warm, bleeding had occurred as he had overclocked himself throughout the battle. Physical damage could be seen happening on his body.

Ye Chong’s eyes shone the moment he discerned the weakening of the foe. Smash! The APM cap had been broken!

That was the very first time in history Ye Chong broke the speed cap after so long being bogged down by it. The barrage of attack by Han Jia had been enhanced, both strength and speed. The expression of Bi Bo and Susan was priceless as it was so ever-changing. The pilots around knew what it meant to break the speed cap.

The leaders of the respective teams were getting regretful of their foolish behavior.

Hush, shush, slash. The daggers of Han Jia danced in the air, leaving 12 afterimages.

The Steel Samurai was still sturdy at first, till crack was heard. The elbows, the knees, the crotch and the neck were disengaged! The samurai was only able to guard 5 blows, while chewing the remaining 7. The bulky samurai had been dismembered, as the parts splattered.

It was a mind-blowing scene as the place got dead silent.

The duel ended.

And Xiong Mocong left the cabin, on a stretcher, being unconsciousness, with blood tainting his mouth and nose – a horrible sight if one may ask.

Xiong Mocong had demonstrated enough skill as a super expert, both bi Bo and Susan knew that. His defeat was not because of his lack of skill or lack of performance but the fact that he had encountered an anomaly.

The sylphlike Han Jia was no longer as gracefully frail as it looked before, while that frail-looking pilot of such great machinery was given the look as if a great man he was.

e Chong skimmed through the data on the processor. Yup, he put in the blue chip, which contained some surprises other than some professional statistics, including a way to leave Planet Zhou Jian. Bravo, as expected from Old Xu the wise and cautious as he had already prepared an escape path. Well, he probably never expected the virus leaking to the world while causing such havoc, an apocalypse in the history of humankind.

Rui Bing was meditating. Her eyes were closed.

Fei Si joined the scene promptly and passed Ye Chong a bottle of blue liquid, “This is the antivirus, though the correct dosage still required a few clinical tests.” Her voice was so flat that no joy was heard, as if it was a really normal thing for her to do.

“Alright. Let’s publicize the formula,” stated Ye Chong.

Fei Si stared at Ye Chong in bewilderment, as never she would expect such line coming from a person like him, since visually he would be the typical cold person who would care about the survival of the others. In addition, she was well aware of the value of the formula. It could easily grant the person both fame and wealth. He should not be unaware of such fact.

Yet he was unmoved by it? Fei Si was getting more and more confused of this mysterious boy.

Well, it did not seem like Ye Chong had a choice – he did not fancy the fame, although he was pretty into the points. He had lots of places to spend points on yet he had no time to utilize the formula for the potential income. It would only be a matter of time before the three Aristocrats arrived by Zhou Jian. He would be joining the imprisonment if he never made his runaway now!

You have got to be kidding me. A mere Steel Samurai was already a supreme hard nut to crack. How about those legendary fighters like Ye Yin or Brahmara? Am I going to die? They aren’t coming alone, they are coming in an army, of millions!

I would be a dead idiot if I would not make my escape now after knowing the way to go.

“Has the professor taken the antidote?” That was his greatest concern.

“Yes,” nodded Fei Si, “he has taken the antivirus. He’s feeling better now, there shouldn’t be any problem.”

Ye Chong returned with a nod, “We are going to leave.” And Rui Bing’s eyes were sprung open.

“Leave? We?” Fei Si could no longer follow the conversation.

“I am bringing all of you along, both you and the professor. The destination has yet to be determined for now,” stated Ye Chong nonchalantly.

Fei Si flinched for a few seconds, then her face reddened, “Who are you!” She raised her voice, “Who are you to take all of us away as you wish? Have you asked our thoughts on this? No! You did not! I am not leaving! I am notgoing anywhere!” Her reply was firm.

Ye Chong tilted his head, “Keep the drama.” Seeing the intensity of her respirating chests, Ye Chong stated, “I am not seeking your opinion. The plan has been established a long time ago.”

“Why you!” Fei Si was so caught up by her rage that she was at loss of words, with tears flooding her eyes, “Sniff… sob… who are you… who are you to determine my future… what am I to you… what am I ??”

Rui Bing gave a glance at Fei Si and turned back to Ye Chong.

The feline’s glance was immediately understood by Ye Chong somehow as he promptly clarified, “I required the professor’s assistance while she is the sole relative to the professor. To avoid trouble she would be taken along.”

Rui Bing’s eyes glowed slightly, as she showed her understanding with a nod, while her steps approached Ye Chong.

The statement from Ye Chong was ground-shattering to Fei Si, as she retreated her tears as well as the warmness of her face. Her eyes glared at Ye Chong. For some reason, a piercing pain took over her heart, that she felt difficult to even breathe.

With her hands on her chests, her eyes were soulless. She had no idea what she was thinking, her mind felt blank.

Rui Bing gave a sigh, plus a scowl at Ye Chong. She moved to Fei Si, her clear voice came tingling, “Stop overthinking.”

The words of Rui Bing pulled Fei Si back to reality. Fei Si could no longer hold her emotions as she collapsed into Rui Bing’s embrace to cry.

Ye Chong could not comprehend the situation. What had happened? Why was Fei Si crying? Why was Rui Bing glaring at me? Weird…

“Oh my Zhou Jian, what has happened?” Susan was stunned by the dramatic happening with Fei Si in the embrace of Rui Bing, as her eyes rolled between all three of them. Well, her life experience had somehow given herself a sound deduction to the situation.

The defeat of Xiong Mocong was a plot twist to her script though. Ye Chong’s performance was solid too, so she acted pretty easygoing when she kept her promise. The mine was not much of a big deal but she still had not obtained the formula! She would love to seize it right now, but there was Ye Chong with his godlike skills and his army of 600. Judging by those stares of admiration from those pilots, they would swear to obey every order of this boy probably. The world is realistic as the weak would always submit to the strong.

Well, it seemed like she would have to make a detour on this, which was why she was trying her best to stay back at Ze Xi academy, “I could help defeating the mutated lifeforms!” She kindly offered, a perfect excuse it was while being able to approach Ye Chong better after sending Xiong Mocong back to hospitalization. Ye Chong on the other hand was puzzled by her advancement.

And there she was, getting caught into a drama. But nobody seemed to be interested enough to spare her some attention. Well it was not like she cared, as she walked towards Fei Si with a kind smile.

Her life experience told her that going with a roundabout would be the most effective treatment to the situation, as she always had her own way to lower the caution of the foes to achieve what she needed. Although the pesky boy whose name was Chen Mu was acting like a stone of a dump, she did not intend to give up, as she had faced the more stone of a dump before.

Ye Chong decided to not give her a second to act, as he took a look at the time, “We are leaving,” he said to Rui Bing.

Rui Bing gave a nod. To where they would go, she would not care, as long as it was with Ye Chong.

“Leaving? To where you guys are leaving?” Susan was alert.

The question was given the silent treatment as Ye Chong preferred to save his words. He made a leap right to the side of Susan, which scared the soul out of her. She was going to move reflexively yet Ye Chong forbade that, his hand grabbed the side of her neck and a crack was heard crystal clear. He was immune to beauty after all, that he would not spare someone just because of her physical appearance, although that snap was only a trick to keep her on ground for 10 days which were the only amount of time he would ever need.

He signaled Rui Bing to stay as he left the room to look for that old Jalopy man.

It did not take him much time before he discovered the good old man was leaning against the corner, dozing off, salivating. And Ye Chong just lifted the sleepyhead all the way back to Rui Bing.

Zzzzzz…

“Oh my Zhou Jian!” The Jalopy elderly was shocked awake, his arms were waving, struggling within Ye Chong’s grip.

Ye Chong calmly got the man to the room and placed him down, “What you fella doin’, spoiling my nice little nap?” He seemed displeased.

“We are going to leave,” replied Ye Chong concisely.

“Leave?” The old man was astonished, “Are you kidding me? Don’t mess with the old man. Why are you thinking of leaving now, of all times? Geez, clearly you have not seen the world enough, boy. Zhou Jian has been quarantine, the entire planet is locked away from the world. They won’t even let us to lift a toe outside if they could not find a way to cure the virus… man boys these days with their hectic attitude…,” he muttered.

Ye Chong was too lazy to brief the angered elderly. Action speaks louder than words anyway.

He gave Rui Bing a nod, “Let’s go.” And then he lifted the Jalopy old man to the outside, “Hey! Hey! Hey! What do you think yer doing boy? You can never get out! They would crash all the escaping craft! You nuts or something?” Towards the kind advice, Ye Chong showed negligence while he took one last check in his bag, on the three chips which would be the key to their survivals.

Rui Bing took Fei Si by her waists and caught up.

It was midnight and almost everyone was a deep asleep. So the escape was carried out quietly, nobody had noticed how the two long shadows had vanished at the street of Zhou Jian.

They headed to the port, the corridor to be exact. Nothing had changed. The spaceship was still there, which was the greatest relief to Ye Chong. He opened up the gate and raised his ears.

…

… … He walked in.

Well, if anyone still remembers, there remained 13 captives inside the ship which technically should be unconscious and in fact they were.

The moment when Old Jalopy saw the ship, he was at loss of word. Fei Si had also stopped weeping in the meantime, as her face was stiff. Rui Bing was calm, seemingly already immune to whatever surprise Ye Chong could bring.

Ye Chong began working right after the gate was sealed tight. The first thing on his list was to smash every communicative device on the passengers. Then he would wake them up.

“Good morning. I guess all of you have already waken up,” stated Ye Chong indifferently. “All of you should understand the situation now.”

“W-who are you? Why did you attack us?” The bodyguard of the child asked grimly.

Towards the pilot who once sniped him, Ye Chong gave a glance. The bodyguard’s scarred face was dull in expression, so were his eyes, apparently unconcerned of his own situation.

“I lacked men to run the ship,” Ye Chong answered with honesty.

“Just…” Everyone was shocked, “Just because of this?”

“Yes.” The reply was firm.

The little boy seemed unafraid, quite the contrary actually, that he looked at Ye Chong with total interest, “You are great,” he commented as he glanced at his bodyguards who lowered their heads in shame, except for the one with a scarred face.

“Where are we going?” The little boy lifted his head and asked in the naive curiosity.

e Chong, again, showed ignorance towards the enquiry of the others, as he turned away and smashed the remaining communicative devices in the ship. After that, he returned to the room and untied the red strands on them.

“All of you should know what you are supposed to do. Now, get back to your respective positions, and you…,” he said as he pointed at that scarred bodyguard, “You will be leading them.” Everything once under the possession of these guardsmen had been scrapped and they had transformed into the typical unarmed men in the ship. And in terms of an unarmed hand-on-hand, they would never overcome Ye Chong, especially when they had to also take care of young master’s safety.

Their only “option” was, to cooperate.

“I do hope there won’t be anything funny from you guys, or else…” The consequence sounded severe enough that it gave chills to everyone even when it went unmentioned.

“What the hell are all of you standing there for? Go go go! Do you want to move only when I’m captured with a knife next to my neck?” The little boy’s words rang impatiently. He did sound a little too old for his age.

The bodyguards took a look at each other, shrugged, they headed to the commander’s room.

The little boy got up and rubbed his wrist, “Hey, don’t you think you’re a little too harsh sometimes? How could you be so mean to a cute little boy like me?” he muttered.

People were giving off stares at this expressive boy, confused.

And that was when he spotted both Rui Bing and Fei Si. He whistled, as a form of compliment for their appearance, while his eyes mischievously rolled over Ye Chong, “Hmm, not bad. Never thought a dull-looking man like you could get such beauties, are those lassies your wives?”

“Nope,” Ye Chong said as he shook his head in disagreement. The answer went so naturally for some reason… Ye Chong felt pretty familiar with this boy. Something of this boy… was giving off nostalgia. But Ye Chong was very sure he had never met such flashy, dramatic boy before. Weird, why the sensation though?

“Well then, which one of them is?” The little boy went on inquiring.

“It’s-”

“Uh uh uh, I’ll make the guess.” The boy interrupted, as his eyes weaved between Rui Bing and Fei Si. “Hmmm…” And he pointed at Rui Bing, “She’s your wife!” Affirmatively he gave his answer.

“How do you know that?” asked Ye Chong in bewilderment. He was pretty accurate, ahead-of-time-kind-of accurate. Between Rui Bing and Fei Si, Rui Bing did have a gazillion times greater chance of being his wife if a marriage were to happen. Probably she would also be the only candidate Ye Chong would ever consider.

And Rui Bing’s icy cheeks was tinted with heating scarlet. That was the first time Ye Chong admitted their relationship between both of them, even though Ye Chong was too ignorant to be aware of the meaning of his gesture.

“Tsk. One glance and I could tell you’re some bum from the countryside. Dull and boring, missing whichever essential of a real man. Sigh, what a waste to the white-garbed lassie…” Shook the boy. It formed a pretty hilarious contrast when a young boy like him giving off comments like some elderly.

The scarred bodyguard was sitting by his side. And Ye Chong shifted his stare. The little boy noticed the changes in Ye Chong’s expression, “You could save your stare.” Stated the boy, “This dork knows only to murder, nothing else.” And he brushed his sleeves, “But I must say you’re quite something, that you could defeat him easily.”

Ye Chong was quiet.

“Oh and do you happen to have the latest issue of the Playboys?” asked the boy naughtily.

“Playboys?”

“Yeah, playboys, as in socialite, womanizer, Coxcomb, whatever you call it.”

The Coxcomb? And Ye Chong was reminded of his good old spaceship… as well as his mechanical partner, he missed them. But he understood what the boy wanted, the boy probably was referring to some exotic visuals that Shang used to be a maniac collecting them.

“Nope,” said Ye Chong.

“How about Snow White?”

Is that the fairytale?

“I know what you’re thinking of, but no. I meant the film ‘Schneewittchen… und die schwanzgeile Königin’, the classic from a planet called Earth on 1995… I forgot what corresponding year is that in our calendar but you get it.”

“No,” replied Ye Chong.

The name did sound like the one Shang once shouted when he was in the room alone. That was his favorite too, he kept recommending it.

Man, this boy is seriously like a carbon copy of Shang.

The thought flashed in Ye Chong’s mind and he stumbled.

Fei Si looked Ye Chong in his deep ponder. Towards this mysterious young man, her feeling was complicated.

Is it love? No! Way! I don’t not believe she would fall for someone so easily. What is it then? Why would I cry? Why would I feel so terribly sad? Why the heartache back then?

For someone who had never experienced relationship like Fei Si, these were so difficult, not even the most professional psychologist could give her the definite answer. Admiration? Worship? Intensity? Pride of a woman? What was it? Who knows…

The little boy was feeling strange upon seeing Ye Chong’s sudden silence, as his fair hand waved before Ye Chong, “Galaxy to Big Boy, Galaxy to Big Boy, do you copy?”

And Ye Chong returned to his dimension.

“So where are we going again? Seriously you don’t bump into the armies of the Aristocrats. Not even the greatest saint could save you if that happens.” The little boy’s tone was laid-back, “Meh…”

The action was warming to Ye Chong, since it reminded him a lot of Shang. “I have a plan in mind.” Shook Ye Chong as he squinted his eyes. He got to focus.

“Good. Call me up when it’s food time, okay?” The little boy waved again and melted into slumber.

“Okay,” Ye Chong replied concisely.

Okay, did I just see two extraterrestrial entities communicating with each other? Thought Fei Si, as her large eyes fixed at Ye Chong and the boy, not even the Old Jalopy could compute the situation.

Seeing the boy asleep, Rui Bing frowned as she walked to him silently and placed the blanket over him. His eyes were suddenly wide open, giggled he, “It must be a chore to get your man, right?”

“Hmph!” Rui Bing blushed again and gave a little knock on his head.

“Owww…” The boy rubbed his head, “It’s so painful that my little heart broke. I’m a little boy you see, can’t take even the slightest violence.” And he grabbed Rui Bing’s hand and brushed her palm, fingers, “Such tender hands…” He seemed mesmerized…

Rui Bing’s frozen eyes were looking a little ridiculed. She quickly withdrew her hand and gave a flick on his forehead. “Sister… Sister…” Rui Bing was walking away, “Speak to me little bit more pretty please…” Rui Bing did not care.

“Man, a cold girl to a dull boy,” he mumbled. “Such perfect match.” And he went back to sleep, snoring this time.

Fei Si grabbed Old Jalopy to one corner, she glanced at Ye Chong’s back once and whispered, “Jalopy man, where do you think he’s taking us to exactly?”

“Like heaven I know.” Shook Old Jalopy helplessly, “But it shouldn’t be a dangerous place. He does not seem to be a bad guy to be honest.”

“Then why did he capture us?” Fei Si was really disturbed by this. Ye Chong’s utter ignorance of coldness was more heart-piercing than anything else to any girl in this world, especially like a brainiac and independent woman like Fei Si who got more easily agitated over little gesture like this.

“Like hell I know,” stated Old Jalopy indifferently, with a gentle rub on Fei Si’s head. “Sigh, it’s a pain to see a girl like you getting involved in this.”

The spacecraft was traveling at the asteroid orbit round Zhou Jian. As the location suggested, countless of asteroids hovered at the area, which were the hazard that any spacecraft would love to avoid. But there was this someone called Ye Chong who favored the contrary of praxis, that the moment he gave the order, the guardsmen were giving the galactic look of confusion at him.

The orbit was silent with only the specks of asteroids floating in the space.

“Take caution and dodge them,” ordered Ye Chong.

The guardsmen panicked, they never expected this young man asking them to fly into an asteroid orbit for real. It’s suicidal!

The spacecraft had been decelerated drastically as they held the steer carefully. They were skillful, still occasionally they would crash into some pebbles around and caused a quick quake in the craft. The boy woke up when his head hit the wall.

“Dammit! Did somebody curse my forehead today?” shouted the boy.

Ye Chong’s eyes fixed upon the screen of asteroids. “Go on.” His expression unchanged. The guards were going to explode. If it was not the fact that Ye Chong was unbeatable, they would have swarmed upon him and given him a good smash.

“Eh?” The little boy was bewildered by the happening.

“Stop right there!” Shouted Ye Chong out of the blue.

The steering men’s hands twitched, almost led the ship into another crash as they stopped in front of a giant asteroid with a length of 3 kilometers – a rare size of the asteroids to be honest.

And Ye Chong deployed his mech, was going to enter the cabin, “Everybody else stays.” He suddenly turned his head to Rui Bing, “If anybody does anything funny, you could do harm.” He ordered his most trustworthy member of the ship. Rui Bing had already ascended as a partner of his and towards a partner, Ye Chong would show total trust.

Rui Bing’s eyes lustered, as if a kind of joy or passion bladed through the hopeless darkness, “Mhm,” she replied. Her white garbs were pure, so were her gorgeous eyes and her chivalry, as if the legendary goddess of war.

Fei Si covered her mouth in disbelief.

“Wow, that’s so cool!” The little boy was excited, with his right hand on his chin, acting like he was pondering, “Hmmm, right. If both of them… with their stamina… position in bed… must be interesting, innovative, the greatest of humanity.”

It was relieving that the boy knew to have hedging in his words. Imagine if Rui Bing ever caught on his words, he probably would have been lifted in the air to be given the capital punishment of domesticity.

Rui Bing had added some solemnly to the atmosphere, that no man would dare to challenge her by doing something funny. A Jie expert was the formation of dignity themselves, especially for one of the psychic attacking master like Rui Bing.

Ye Chong piloted his Han Jia and went around the asteroid.

Back in the ship, people were stunned. The screen was empty the moment Han Jia left the ship.

And Ye Chong found a dent on this piece of rock as he stopped.