Legend of the Supreme Soldier - Chapter 361

e Chong spent the third day in the forest without moving beyond 100 meters of his proximity. His face was smudged with mud, barely recognizable, though his vision was still clear.

The night was long as he slept not more than 5 hours a day, just enough to recover his stamina. His wounds had healed themselves completely within the three days, justifying the effect of that super potion, probably even those premium hospitals in 5 major galaxies could be defeated by the pill.

Too bad he had none of those magical pills left. Night Enchantment was also already a goner during his run.

The three days lapsed with him scouting, observing every single plant around him. He dared not show negligence even to the tiniest sprout of weed on ground, hell knows if the weed was carnivorous as he tried recalling the few lines he captured when he studied the encyclopedia back then. As Lunatic Guan had once taught, the study of alchemy originated from the study of botanic, the study of plants. So the more ancient the branch of alchemy, the more likely it would have vast information on botanical studies.

And Ye Chong actually remembered the few details on each plant there, which meant all these plants were part of the entries in the encyclopedia, also proving that the branch in which Lunatic Guan studied was truly something from the ancient. That was something shocking, although Lunatic Guan had never mentioned anything about the origin of her studies, not even in her chip or from her words.

And regarding what exactly the branch he was learning, it did not seem to matter, even though what he had learned this far was beyond complication while he had literally zero foundation on the study itself. Well, as long as they were useful, they deserved to remain existed.

He distinguished each plant he perceived, whether they were dangerous, how could they be dangerous, of what kind of danger they impose – all for preparation. He did not have tools to perform experiment to test these plants out, he could only try to reminisce that part of the plant in the encyclopedia. What he needed to do was to grasp as much as he could in his he’d at the moment, to a point where the characteristics of these plants felt like at the back of his hand, so his security would be maximized, the likelihood of his survival would increase.

Ninetails, Borneo’s Heart, Layered Lavender…

Names of the plants flashed in his mind quickly along with a massive amount of data refreshed constantly. His main focus would be those with high hazard levels and he would spend an extra few minutes on them whenever encountered.

Well, luckily plants as hazardous as the Pines of Spider Web were not that common, while having an easily discerned size. Those smaller plants with lower hazardous level could be potentially more dangerous however, like Dartelion for example, they could hide within the grasses effortlessly. One careless step and you would already be wounded.

Well Ye Chong was cautious enough to live the next few days without any casualty.

After the accumulation period, he finally started to hasten his journey, although he still could not tell where he was and to where he was heading. These plants were hindering his sights everywhere, to a point where they felt suffocating sometimes without seeing an opening.

On the seventh day Ye Chong started to feel at better ease moving within the forest. Certainly, at a presupposition that he was careful enough, since one mistake could cost his life.

His appearance was bizarre. His body was hung with quite a number of Vinesacks, like a Christmas tree. Any part of his body which would not hinder his movement could be a nice hanger for Vinesacks. He did maximize the use of his fleshy hangers with additional vines, but his vining skill sucks, making him look like a package to be delivered from the fish market. He would not mind as long as those vines would not break.

The Vinesacks contained the loots of his foraging daily.

Growl…

That meant mealtime. The stomach reminded him so, as he stopped walking and took a look around. Okay, the plants were not as dense as the last spot he stayed, there should not be a problem. Perfect for taking a break. He took out his dagger and cleared an opening on the ground.

He got himself seated and withdrew a yellowish fruit. It was known as the Pomegold. It had a high nutritious value and was a pretty rare material for alchemy. Ye Chong made a chomp and chewed slowly. He would not end his only mealtime in seconds before the next few hours of journey. The forest bore lots of edibles but that did not mean he could let every food go to waste.

To be honest, the taste of Pomegold did not live up to its name. It was rather plain… but sufficient to provide Ye Chong the energy to travel. Well, if Lunatic Guan ever knew her apprentice ate some precious food as his daily course, she might be tossing the flasks at him now. Wait, not only Lunatic Guan, probably every professional alchemist would capture such preposterous sight, with their heart aching. What a waste!

After he finished the fruit, he took out Water Bamboo at his waist. As its name suggested, the bamboo could absorb the moisture from the earth and stored within its cavity. The water was pure and perfectly drinkable. To be frank, the fluid inside the bamboo was also a precious material for alchemy reagents since it only grew in tedious environment, which caused harvesting to be more difficult, thus the rarity. Nevertheless, there seemed to be quite a number of Water Bamboos in the forest.

The bamboo he got had 5 levels and each level was like a tiny cup that Ye Chong would use his dagger to slice open, revealing that juicy heavenly green which he would fail to resist after a sip and gargle everything.

It tasted way better than those sugary drinks of the known branches. It had that faint scent while being refreshing at his tongue. The liquid of Water Bamboo was exceptional to the taste of Ye Chong. He kept the remaining stand however, that would be his source of water.

He then closed his eyes and had forty winks. Well at least the dangerous forest ensured no wild animal raiding him when he was asleep.

2 hours passed, well it felt like two hours. He opened his eyes. He stretched his body, which felt replenished at that moment.

It was the 15th day and he started to get used of the place, as he could already tell if the plant was dangerous at one glance. And the Vinesacks were full, of all kinds of things he believed to be useful for his journey. He did not keep those precious plants he saw on his way however.

Preciousness could aid him nothing in survival. Those plants could be wasting a slot in his limited inventory.

The biggest loot he got was on the 18th day.

He forwarded with the more caution. And he flinched, as he felt something hard underneath his feet. The path of the forest before this had always been at soft and fluffy due to the additional layer of the withered leaves. Nothing this hard was felt before, not even a piece of rock.

He squatted after taking a glance at the surrounding. He withdrew his dagger and swept the leaves away.

That one item revealed from the brownish leaves sent him a stunning spell, while giving him an overwhelming joy right after. His hand grew towards the item with extra care.

It’s… It’s a flask?! There’s a flask right here?

He removed the flask from the leaves. The flask seemed to be a portable version of its typicality, with a more limited design, but that was more than pleasing to Ye Chong.

A portable flask? Ye Chong had something in mind as he began digging with a twig, after keeping his dagger away. He could not dig the ground with a sharp blade, the edges could rupture something, assuming there was actually something really helpful underground.

There was something! There was indeed something!

A set of skeleton, once of a rotten corpse perhaps. There was no clothing left. Ye Chong presumed the corpse had been buried underground so long that every bit of it had disintegrated. Right next to the skeletons, there were a few containers typical to the alchemy laboratory, along with a few metallic accessories.

The dead should be once an alchemist. Speculated Ye Chong, the evidences were pretty blatant. His eyes were all glued upon the skeleton while giving zero attention on those accessories laying next to it.

If some jewelry-fanatics were ever along, they would go literally insane the moment they perceived the sparkle within the ground. There was a silver pendant with a piece of Skylee embedded, there was also a ring made out of dark amberjade – every single piece of the accessories was priceless, justifying the social-standing of the dead in the past. Well, to Ye Chong, they were not as valuable as the flasks though.

The containers were tightly sealed, which made Ye Chong hesitate to make his next move.

Like hell knows what the containers stored! Those could be the security measures, the self-defense mechanism by this once-alchemist possibly from the ancient to hurt people. And as far as Ye Chong revealed the reagents he made in the story, all of them turned out to be extremely fatal, the Bluefire chemical was the prime example, which one could never survive once they got ignited by Dimming Blue.

Assuming those were the contents, it would be horrible to open the containers recklessly here…

Nonetheless, the hesitation only lasted for a few seconds, as the need of a proper container demanded Ye Chong to gamble his luck. He made up his mind – he would be opening the containers.

He took the first container, which was tightly sealed, but well the effect of the content could not be guaranteed as it had probably been a century old.

He turned the knob. The inside was some dark red powder half a bottle full, soon a choking spiciness raided the air.

The heck is this? Ye Chong was bewildered, but he could not identify what it exactly was just yet. He gave it a thought… and carefully poured a little bit of the powder at one thick leaf of the Liebig tea sprout nearby.

A chemical reaction occurred?!

His nasal cavity was then choked by the tiny column of smoke. Ye Chong took a look at the sprout. The sprout had withered?! It only took a second for the powder to drain every bit moisture of the tea sprout. The thin trunk had lost its succulent strength and had shattered.

This is an intensive dehydrating agent?! Wait, I had seen something like this in the chip before… Redsand! The Redsand Dehydrator! The name struck Ye Chong’s mind.

He then replaced the cap, with extreme caution as if fearing a single particle to be freed into the wind and fall onto his body. His heart tightened, he tried calming himself.

Such terrifying dehydrator!

“The Redsand Dehydrator is used for extremely efficient dehydrating. It is known for its spiciness and is a secret formula exclusive to the Smoke branch of alchemy.”

That was the description of Redsand in the encyclopedia entry, although the formula, as the way it was referred, remained unmentioned in the chip. Never once Ye Chong would expect the “dehydrator” – while its name sounded uninteresting as Lunatic Guan briefly mentioned it – turned out to be such brutal horror. He believed, it would only take a little bit of Redsand Dehydrator to completely dehydrate a fully grown adult.

He recalled that there was a list of instructions on using the powder in the entry as well. Apparently, in order to handle the powder properly, the user would have to apply a thick coat of proofing on the hands. The proofing was rather simple to produce, It was technically a mixture of Pagodamadens fluid with Extrafragrans powder and a hint of Chrysanthemum Balm for condensing effects. The end product would be colorless while exuding a gentle hint of aroma. It would form a film over the hands to prevent the powder from contacting the hands. The proofing had a wide range of uses. Most deadly-on-contact alchemy production would require it for general handling.

Ye Chong did see these raw materials somewhere in the forest before.

So was this person from the Smoke branch?

Ye Chong looked at the skeleton, speculation began brewing in his mind as his curious eyes wandered at the few other containers.

He proceeded with his lucky draw as he opened the remaining fortune bottle, only to discover that all of the content had already decayed over the years. And Redsand Dehydrator survived the centuries probably because of its supreme quality seal. Well at least he got a few containers for professional alchemy now.

The flasks might be limited in its functions but the richness of the resources here had already provided him countless blueprints of his exciting production, since there were precious plants everywhere in the woods.

Ye Chong was so joyful that he actually cleaned the containers using the fluid of Water Bamboo extravagantly.

Ye Chong gave one last glance at the skeletons. On proper thought, he should bury it and he did eventually.

Just when he was gong to toss his first handful of dirt, he noticed the accessories.

e recognized the silverlight metal. This metal was extremely malleable, and a good additive for alloys to improve malleability. However, people would not usually do that, since it was a very rare kind of metal. It was not cost efficient to use it. Ye Chong was never interested in rare but useless metals, even though he could always recognize them. Ye Chong only knew about Skylee, which was a type of gem.

The pendant had a very interesting shape, like smoke, or flowing water. The thread circled around the Skylee gem in a whirl of fantasy. The necklace was intricately carved and very impressive. However, Ye Chong did not have the aesthetic sense to appreciate it. To him, it was only a typical example of useless luxury.

What really interested him was the dark amberjade ring; more precisely, the black pearl on the dark amberjade ring. It was an utterly black and flawless black pearl. Most people would think that it was naturally made, but it was not. Ye Chong recognized this pearl as the fruit of the Herro smoke tree, called the smoke pearl. Dark amberjade was a very rare kind of jade, but it paled in comparison to the smoke pearl.

In Lunatic Guan’s chip, the Herro smoke tree was classified as extinct. Every Herro smoke tree would only produce three smoke pearls. That was exactly how rare the smoke pearl was.

To the layman, the smoke pearl was only an average black colored bead. To an alchemist, however, it was an absolute treasure. Smoke pearls could counter almost any kind of knockout agent. Of course, there were exceptions. According to Lunatic Guan, there were three kinds of knockout agents that could still affect a person wearing a smoke pearl – Qian system’s Illusion, Hanming school’s Ice, and Jiu Family’s Blissful Drunkenness. However, even the three strongest knockout agents would have diminished effects when a smoke pearl was in play.

A battle between alchemists usually occur silently, without any physical violence, or any dazzling transformations. However, it was just as dangerous as mech battles or human combat. The outcome of these battles could be decided in seconds. This gave the alchemists a mysterious facade, but the cruelty that laid within was like a nightmare to most people. For example, a person who died from the redsand dehydrator would dry up into a corpse without any water at all.

This was a mysterious and secretive field of knowledge.

Compared to them, the alchemists in the Five Galaxies were all academics. They only did research, and lived much more peaceful lives.

Ye Chong knew all he did about the alchemists here from Lunatic Guan. In the end, it was only a theoretical understanding of things. It was when he used the Night Enchantment that he came to truly appreciate the strength of alchemists. If not for those Night Enchantment pills, he would definitely not be able to handle the situation. The sight of a huge crowd of people slumping into unconsciousness was staggering.

Knockout agents were alchemy weapons that Ye Chong had grown familiar with. Even with his abilities, he was easily knocked out by Lunatic Guan. The smoke pearl dark amberjade ring was a priceless treasure, and it allowed Ye Chong to freely move within the forest .

He immediately put on the dark amberjade ring with the smoke pearl and, after some thought, the silverlight necklace as well. As for the other items he found, Ye Chong did not find them particularly useful, so he buried them together with the skeleton he found.

With this discovery, Ye Chong’s difficult life in the forest turned for the better.

With the smoke pearl dark amberjade ring on him, he did not have to worry at all about the poisonous miasma and knockout chemicals from certain plants. The few alchemy products he found might have simple uses, but they gave Ye Chong a definitive advantage.

The resources here were abundant, giving him plenty of choice.

His leaf pouches, which were filled with different types of ingredients, were now filled with alchemy products instead. He had treatments for injuries, insect repellents, strong knockout agents, alchemy products to cover his body scent and many more. Ye Chong never considered if these alchemy products were valuable, he only prepared them based on his needs for survival.

He even made plenty of nutrition pills. Nutrition pills were a must-have for aged alchemists. They were made of high calorie ingredients, and could be easily absorbed by the human body. Ye Chong chose the best ingredients, such as the cray fruit, and prepared two big bags of leaf pouches of nutrition pills out of them. They were enough to last him for two months.

“This is an alchemist’s paradise,” Ye Chong wondered to himself. If only he had a laboratory here, equipped with all the necessary tools and devices. That would be wonderful!

Ye Chong was in some ways an academic.

The skeleton he found came to mind unrestrained, and Ye Chong had a newfound respect for the person.

Time passed quickly, especially when he was busy. Ye Chong grew to like this place. There were no fights here, and the place provided a bountiful supply of resources. It was filled with all kinds of treasures, waiting for him to discover. These days, Ye Chong’s skills in alchemy improved by leaps and bounds. Of course, many plants were sacrificed in his path to excellence.

No alchemy would use all these precious resources carelessly like Ye Chong did.

Ye Chong began to move more freely in the forest. The only problem was, he still could not be sure of his path.

He advanced every day, even though he was not sure if he was only going around in circles. His leaf pouches were full of his possessions, but the weight was nothing to Ye Chong, and was not a hindrance to his movements.

Perhaps it was due to his vegetarian diet, or the long duration spent without sunlight, but Ye Chong’s skin turned fairer. With his slender body and fair skin, he looked even more like a soft-spoken gentleman. If Shang could see Ye Chong now, he would be scandalized. However, Ye Chong did not have much of an opinion on his own looks.

With leaf pouches hanging all over his body, and a wooden spear in his right hand, Ye Chong looked like a savage. The spear was made out of ironwood. Ye Chong had happily stumbled upon an ironwood tree that was older than five centuries some time ago.

This ironwood tree was about 150 meters tall, with such a wide girth that it needed about a dozen people to circle around to fully surround it. The ironwood tree had a peculiar look. Its branches were all straight, like an artificial product. From the bottom of the tree to the top, a branch would appear every 30 centimeters. The lowest branch was the shortest, and the length increased going up the tree. These horizontal branches spiraled up evenly. From afar, the tree looked like a pillar, attached with horizontal steps that spiraled upwards.

Ironwood was a very tough material, the hardest known wood material. The lowest branches were the toughest, and Ye Chong had chosen one that was two meters long. He would not have been able to break off the branch if he did not have his sharp dagger. Ye Chong tried to break off the lowest branch with his bare hands and found to his surprise that he could not. This was also the first time Ye Chong got to experience the difficult process of sawing with his dagger.

Besides the surprise, Ye Chong was also overjoyed to find that the wood would make for an excellent weapon. He spent an entire day shaping the branch into a spear. He suddenly recalled the spiral patterns on the wooden spears in Sang Family Village. They prevented slipping and offered a more stabilized flight when thrown. Ye Chong etched those patterns on the entire wooden spear he made.

Ye Chong was very satisfied with the final product. The pitch black body of the weapon made it inconspicuous, and its surface was evenly covered with spiral patterns. The flat ends of the spear were carved with three uneven fullers [1]. The entire weapon was black in color, but upon closer observation, one could notice that it was actually a very thick ink black.

The forest did not lack poisonous vegetation. Ye Chong managed to extract the sap from five different types of poisonous plants, and used them to make a mixed poison. It was extremely poisonous and fatal. Ye Chong believed that it would definitely be on par with the most deadly poisons recorded in Lunatic Guan’s chip.

Ye Chong dipped the spearhead repeatedly in this poison for no less than 50 times. He was absolutely patient when it came to preparing his weapon of defense. He was surprised to find that the colorless poison further darkened the ironwood spearhead after dipping, but luckily the weapon was already black in color, so the effect was not too noticeable.

The wooden spear was a truly dangerous weapon, and even Ye Chong had to use it with extreme care. If he accidentally cut himself with the spearhead, he would definitely not survive. The poison was so strong that there would not be time to ingest an antidote, and in any case, Ye Chong did not know of any antidote for it.

Ye Chong carefully wrapped the spearhead with his leaf pouch, and used it very cautiously.

The forest was much larger than Ye Chong anticipated. It had been a full month, but Ye Chong had not reached the edge of it. Of course, there was also the problem of directions, but he knew that he had traveled a very large distance.

His waist was now adorned with seven blue wooden stakes. These wooden stakes were about 20 centimeters long, and looked a bit like arrows. A few days ago, Ye Chong had accidentally touched a bellvine shooter, which “bestowed” upon him these seven wooden stakes. They had nearly killed him, since bellvine shooter’s air sac had a kind of strong hallucinogen. It was a nerve agent that caused mental disorientation and affected one’s motor functions.

It would be a death wish to wander about this dangerous forest carelessly.

Fortunately, Ye Chong did not encounter any dangers since then.

One day, Ye Chong noticed that the plants around him were gradually growing sparse. This was encouraging to him.

Perhaps he was in the right direction!

e Chong never expected to see a cliff that soared sky high at the edge of the forest. This cliff was unlike any other. It was as though someone had forcibly chopped off the edge. The walls of the cliff went outwards going up, which made climbing up impossible. Ye Chong longed to have a mech right now. Even the simplest mech would spare him the trial ahead.

He walked along the bottom of the cliff. Up above, the cliff reached outwards, blocking the sun and providing him shade. Cool water dripped occasionally from the rocks above onto him.

There were no signs of human activity here. In fact, there were no signs of human activity in the forest. Those Smoke school members must have entered the forest hundreds of years ago. The forest was extremely dangerous, bordering fatal. No matter how you strong you were physically, the lack of alchemy knowledge would surely lead to an early death. Alchemists may be able to identify dangerous plants, but it was highly likely for them to fall prey to the likes of the web palm and the bellvine shooter due to their weak physiques. Didn’t the Smoke school members who had their smoke pearls died here too?

Ye Chong felt very blessed to still be alive right now. He was very grateful towards Lunatic Guan. Without her, he would probably be a corpse by now.

The moist walls of the cliff were covered with moss, and smelt of moist decay.

It might be foolish of him to walk along the bottom of the cliff, but it was also the safest. These days, getting his bearings was his number one problem when he was in the forest.

He walked for three days. There was no need to concern himself with getting his directions right, so Ye Chong advanced quickly. He ran tirelessly like a leopard.

At the two ends of his wooden spear hanged two large string bags. His weapon was reduced to a shoulder pole. The string bags were not what someone with Ye Chong’s crude handiwork could make. It was actually from a sarmentous plant, known as the earthlush wisteria. They grew along the ground, spreading out like a web. Ye Chong used them to make his string bags. Inside the string bags were the materials that Ye Chong harvested from his surroundings, including a multitude of alchemy ingredients in large quantities. Ye Chong also found plants that were not recorded in Lunatic Guan’s chip. He collected samples of them for analysis at some later time.

Deep down, Ye Chong had the quirks of a researcher.

On the third day, he finally made a discovery. Ye Chong noticed the crack in front of him, and stopped in his tracks.

The crack zigzagged down the walls of the cliff from the top. It was very narrow, only about five meters across. Where did this crack lead to? No one knew, but Ye Chong hoped that it would bring him out of this forest.

The forest was like an alchemist’s paradise, but without the proper apparatus, it was like seeing the most alluring and naked woman before him and not being able to touch her. Aside that, his warily spent days were wearing him out. Moreover, he was also getting tired of the fruits that he had enjoyed very much at the beginning. It was too bad that he could find even an ant in this forest.

It took only three seconds for Ye Chong to make his decision.

Once inside the crack, it opened up into a wide space. This was no crack in the wall, but a huge valley. The entrance to the valley was narrow, but it widened up as he progressed deeper inside.

It was like entering a whole new world.

The dark red rocks that formed the walls were jagged. The walls of the valley were in patches of faint or intense dark red, like being washed with blood. There was no sign of life inside, not even moss, and it was dead quiet. Unlike the moist air in the forest, it was very dry in here. The air was almost scorching to breathe in.

Ye Chong’s first reaction was to feel for the bamboo water container on his waist. He relaxed when found there to have enough water for him.

He turned serious. This place was weird, no matter how he looked at it. Ye Chong took down the string bags hung on his wooden spear, and tied them onto himself.

He gathered his focus. With the wooden spear in hand, he advanced slowly but firmly. The solid rock felt nice below his feet, suitable for him to spurt if necessary. Back in the forest, the thick and soft layer of decaying leaves under his feet made him feel unsteady all the time. Now, he finally had solid ground to stand on.

As he moved further in, Ye Chong found that there were actually some vegetation in the valley. He could find moss in shaded corners behind some rocks. Water that seeped through the rocky walls were enough for him to replenish his water supply, even though it did not taste as good as his own water stored in his bamboo container.

Ye Chong walked for about five kilometers from the entrance, by his estimate. He took five hours to cover this distance out of wariness.

The day turned dark, and night came.

Nighttime did not bother Ye Chong, since he could see clearly with just a little bit of light. Ye Chong did not stop walking just because it turned dark.

There did not seem to be any dangerous animals in here. Ye Chong sighed in relief. This was definitely good news for him.

The dark red valley walls seen in the dark looked like a giant sleeping creature. The cloudless sky was covered with twinkling stars.

Abruptly, Ye Chong felt moved by the vast changes that were happening to him. The stars shone like diamonds in the sky, even though they would look much brighter in outer space. However, without the atmospheric disturbance, they would not twinkle as they would have right now. Some time ago, he was still flying a highly advanced starship; now, he was like a savage trying to find his way through the forest.

Ye Chong smiled wryly to himself and kept on walking. There was a right turn ahead. Somewhere above eye level, a rocky part jutted out.

Something weird then happened!

Suddenly, the rocky part that jutted out began to glow in patches of a vivid purple, as if some purple lights were turned on!

The palm-sized purple glowing patches continued to increase in numbers. Soon, the entire rock was covered in dense patches of purple light.

The soft purple glow was not too bright, but it was still very visible against the darkness, making it impossible to miss.

Ye Chong had sharp eyes. He saw everything clearly, sudden as it was. The rock was covered with a kind of seastar-like organism. These organisms rested on the rock. They were the ones that emitted the purple flow. In fact, they were glowing like five-pointed stars, but the details were lost due to the distance.

Ye Chong turned back and ran without hesitation.

The best strategy against an unknown threat was not to investigate, but to get away as fast as possible.

Ye Chong did not see the strangeness that was unfolding behind him. The purple patches floated into the air. WIth closer observation, one could see that the glowing organisms were spinning about themselves very quickly, thus propelling themselves into the air. Their five soft tentacles were like five blades of a propeller. By spinning very quickly about themselves, their bodies looked like purple discs, or purple laser discs.

Ye Chong did not see this, as he was running as fast he could away from them.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh!

Ye Chong heard the sharp booms from behind him. He turned around and was shocked by what he saw. Heavens! The numerous flat purple laser discs were all coming towards him. There were so many of them, probably in the hundreds.

They’re quick! Ye Chong had thought that he was quick, but now he knew better. He was not five hundred meters away when the five-pointed star organisms caught on to him.

Ye Chong felt a cold chill overcoming him.

He heard something closing in from behind, and quickly rolled to the side.

Puff puff puff!

The rock in front of Ye Chong was hit! No less than a few dozens of purple laser discs had hit on the rock. The solid rock crumbled under the attacks of the purple laser discs. They easily penetrated the solid rock like it was tofu.

Ye Chong felt another chilling wave overcoming him, and shuddered. He knew that his body was not as tough as that rock. If the purple laser discs hit him … The thought was terrifying.

Ye Chong reacted quickly, launching himself high up into the air.

Dozens more of the purple discs buried themselves into the ground where Ye Chong was.

With death so close, Ye Chong felt his surroundings abruptly slowing down. His breathing calmed down, an ability honed through countless experiences of escaping death.

He gripped onto his wooden spear, and his vision tuned out the laser discs. Now, Ye Chong could only see fast-flying blue dots around him. His vision had once again turned into this simple geometrical image.

While his vision became simplified, it was still the most complicated geometrical image he had ever seen. The blue dots moved quickly, and he was not sure if he could lock on to them. The faint and short blue lines were also moving unpredictably, appearing and vanishing randomly in his vision, making it even more difficult to lock on to the blue dots.

Ye Chong considered his situation calmly, making rapid calculations in his head. He was at the peak of his calculating abilities, a combined result of extreme calmness and madness.

His eyes shone coldly, without any trace of emotion. He was silent as a grave, his apathetic expression much like a lifeless corpse.

His legs stepped here and there and he wielded his wooden spear with deadly accuracy.

This was a moment that would inspire any combat expert.

Every established combat expert would have their own style of combat. It could be passionate and aggressive, or continuous and gentle. It could be with overwhelming force, or strange and unpredictable. Ye Chong’s preferred style was one of calculation. Calmness, accuracy and efficiency were all hallmarks of Ye Chong’s combat style.

Now, Ye Chong demonstrated the full potential of his own combat style.

The wooden spear always took the shortest route to its victim, delivering an accurate and lethal blow to the purple laser discs.

The purple laser discs came at him like heavy rain. They traced purple archs in the dark due to their fast speed. The night sky of the valley was now filled with a purple meteor shower, and at the center of this meteor shower was a young man with his wooden spear.

The leafy covers on the ends of the spear were already torn open, exposing the ink dark spearhead beneath. Only when the spearhead met its purple glowing target that it would shine with an eerie black.

Ye Chong’s hands were moving as fast he could manage. He was like a spring compressed to its limit and then released, unleashing his strongest attack. His efficient attacks and cold, calculative mind saved his life.

He could hear sharp cries from the purple creatures. Ye Chong’s wooden spear was also damaging to them. Five-edged mollusk bodies were scattered around him, their purple glow slowly fading out. The poison on the ironwood spearhead was strong enough to kill these creatures that Ye Chong had never seen before.

Ye Chong’s breathing shortened. His stamina was depleting very quickly.

133 of them! That was how many blue dots he had hit. They were already decreasing in numbers, but these creatures learned from experience. They switched tactics, abandoning straight lined attacks. They circled around Ye Chong, but did not easily approach him .

This change made it even harder for Ye Chong. He could only sense the attacks coming when they were near, so he could only focus himself and be prepared. The swooping sounds of those creatures as they flew around him were a heavy load on his mind.

In his first round of attack, Ye Chong had moved his hands so fast that he exceeded Mach 20! If word of this got out, it would create an uproar in both the Five Galaxies and the He Yue Galaxy.

However, Ye Chong had no perspective of how fast his hand actually were.

Up until now, he had benefited from other people in terms of combat and alchemy. Mech maneuvering was the only thing that he relied completely on real life experience to improve himself, after Mu/Shang’s initial training.

These star-shaped creatures knew about tactics!

Ye Chong was troubled. There were at least 200 more of them. On the other hand, they were beginning to fly around almost lazily, like they were drunk. With their charming sways and small sized bodies, they would certainly make for popular pets for the fairer sex. Ye Chong, however, was deeply troubled by their movements.

After nearly half a minute, those star-shaped creatures swayed higher up unsteadily, as if they could crash down at any time.

Abruptly, Ye Chong’s eyes swept across something. He was immediately encouraged, as he now had a plan.

On the ground were his many scattered leaf pouches. When Ye Chong rolled on the ground just now, his string bags were torn open, leaving his leaf pouches all over the ground. However, he had wrapped each pouch tightly, and none of them were torn open.

Ye Chong’s plan was to open these leaf pouches. Inside were more than 30 different kinds of knockout agents.

He continued to stare upwards, wary of the swooping purple discs around him, all the while quietly moving towards the leaf pouches.

The star-shaped creatures were smart, but even they could not guess what Ye Chong was up to.

Ye Chong was now three steps away from the nearest leaf pouch. He was secretly overjoyed, but dared not be careless. The closer he was to victory, the easier it was to fail. He had no intention of wasting this opportunity.

His wariness paid off.

Swish!

15 purple laser discs came towards him from all directions. Seen from above, one would be able to make out some crude form of coordination amongst these 15 laser discs.

While there were only 15 of them, their attack this time was many times stronger.

Exhausted, Ye Chong’s wooden spear still swung about deftly, but now that he was no longer completely tuned in for combat, his movements were a little stalled. He only killed seven of them and avoided five.

On his body were three bloody gashes, like being cut with a fast moving knife. He experienced first hand the power of those fast-spinning tentacles.

The faint scent of blood in the air was very tempting for the hundreds of laser discs in the air. This was their first success, and they were all getting excited.

This slight delay was an opening for Ye Chong.

Without further hesitation, Ye Chong launched himself towards the leaf pouches.

Rip!

The tightly wrapped leaf pouches burst under Ye Chong’s pressure. The colourful powder inside was now released to the air, their colours unrecognizable in the dark.

The air smelled of a blend of every possible smell. All knockout agents were designed to spread out wide to increase their effective range.

In that instant, a fifty-meter radius around Ye Chong was filled with this powdery mist. The knockout agents, made of precious ingredients, were so dense that he could see through them. This wasteful use of the knockout agents would have caused a heartache in almost every alchemist, Ye Chong excluded.

“30 over kinds of strong knockout agents, let’s see how you fare?” Ye Chong thought to himself as he heaved a sigh of relief.

he fact was, all the alchemy formulas in Lunatic Guan’s chips were very reliable. Crash! Splat! The star-shaped creatures fell from the sky like kites losing control. Even Ye Chong, with the protection of his smoke pearl, felt a little dizzy as he stayed in the smoky mist.

He thought to himself, “What a strong agent!”

Shang came to mind, for some reason. He would have loved these kinds of things. Shang was the type who was fond of sinister means of attack.

Sigh, just when would he be able to meet Mu or Shang? From within the midst, Ye Chong’s stony expression betrayed faint traces of warmth. Anyone who saw him now would have thought he was the same guy as the apathetic man they came to know. Now, Ye Chong was just a boy who missed his friends.

This gentle moment of sentiment quickly evaporated, and his face returned to its usual coldness.

Ye Chong crouched down and studied the weird creatures that nearly ended his life.

The ground was covered with them. Some were still glowing a faint purple, while others had faded completely. They were the size of his palm, their soft bodies shaped like a five-pointed star. It was hard to notice the details of their dark purple skin in the dark, and Ye Chong did not find anything suspicious. They laid quietly on the ground, bellies rising and falling rhythmically, looking quite adorable, with none of their earlier viciousness. Their five-pointed tentacles had a hard and sharp edge, deadly under high speeds.

Ye Chong was not quite over with his risky encounter just yet. If he had responded slower, the odds were that he would be dead by now. These creatures were smart, whether due to their natural fighting instincts or innate intelligence. Whichever the case, they were still very dangerous beings to deal with.

He did not know how long these creatures would stay under from the knockout agent, but Ye Chong would not risk his life to know the answer. He lifted his wooden spear, and stabbed at each and every one of those star-shaped creatures. The poison at the tip of the wooden spear was deadly. The creatures stopped moving and turned black in color the instant they were cut with the spearhead.

After finishing his job, Ye Chong felt a deep sense of fatigue overcoming him. His legs felt heavy as lead. His entire body was drenched in sweat, and he felt cool under the gentle night breeze.

Ye Chong did not sit down immediately. That would not do any good for restoring his stamina. Instead, he loosened up his body slowly, dragging along his heavy feet. The truth was, he was so tired that the thought of moving even a finger was overwhelming.

Ye Chong gritted his teeth and fought against the wish to just lie down on the ground. He moved his arms and feet slightly. In the end, his effort paid off. His body did not ache as much, and he could feel his strength returning slowly. Now, he finally sat down, gasping heavily for breath.

After half an hour, Ye Chong stood up. He felt invigorated, and no longer so fatigued.

Ye Chong began to summarize and analyze his fight against the star-shaped creatures.

What else was here? He did not know. However, he knew that there would be others. No one knew if there would be more of those star-shaped creatures.

It seemed that he was really not suitable to work as an alchemist. He did not put alchemy on the same priority level as combat and mech maneuvering. He would only thought of using alchemy when combat and mechs failed to solve his problems.

He had unwittingly committed this terrible mistake. Once, a long time ago, Mu had taught him to make use of all his resources and pick the most appropriate solution for each problem, and not rely purely on his preferred methods.

If he had released those strong knockout agents and hallucinogens while he was running away earlier, those creatures would not have been able to touch a hair on him, and he would not have been in such a desperate situation. He remembered that he had ran for 500 meters away from them before they caught up to him. If, in those 500 meters, he had released some of those knockout agents, it would have been enough to deal with the whole lot of them.

Ye Chong laughed mockingly at himself before he picked up the undamaged leaf pouches. He counted them, and found that he had used almost all his knockout agents. The emergency just now did not allow him the luxury of deciding how much exactly to use.

Back in the forest, Ye Chong produced a whole lot more of the knockout agents. The forest was rich with resources, and Ye Chong need only acquire the raw ingredients from the edge of the forest. However, he did not mind spending time on this endeavor, since it would increase his likelihood of surviving. He would not want to die just because he grew impatient.

Ye Chong re-entered the valley this time fully prepared. He had seven leaf pouches hanging on his waist, with two of them open at all times. These seven leaf pouches were filled with strong knockout agents. The alchemy bottle filled with redsand dehydrator was also on his waist. He covered his palms with a thick layer of gum, but left his smoke pearl untouched. The two opened leaf pouches were filled with two strong knockout agents with a high dispersion rate. They formed a protective circle around Ye Chong. With the smoke pearl, Ye Chong was immune to its effects. If not for his ring, he would not have been able to use this plan.

Ye Chong did not slow down as he passed by the rocky part that jutted out from the wall from last time. However, he was relieved to see it without any of those creatures.

He marched on forward. The dark red walls had an oppressive feeling to it. The shady sky made the valley felt even more oppressive. There was no sound at all, not even a whisper. Even someone as mentally strong as Ye Chong frowned with worry.

There was no soil in here. All the surfaces were made of rocks. The valley did not have any traces of human activity. The territory was uneven. However, it did not bother Ye Chong much. He could leap and climb like an animal.

Gradually, the path along the valley grew more treacherous. There were troughs to watch out for everywhere, and it was hard to find a flat surface. Ye Chong also noticed that the ground was sloping upwards. That meant he was climbing further up.

The occasional sounds of dripping water in the silent valley were unsettling.

However, Ye Chong quickly got used to his environment. It reminded him of his time on the trash planet, of his solitary life before Mu or Shang made their appearance. The desolate trash mountains were filled with unknown dangers, and he had to face them alone.

Ye Chong soon dismissed those thoughts and focused on his surroundings. This was not the time for nostalgia.

Just then, his ears caught an almost imperceptible buzzing sound.

He immediately stopped in his tracks and focused on listening.

It’s right ahead! The sound came from in front of him, just beyond a bend.

The buzzing sound grew louder, and it was heading towards him. Ye Chong quickly studied his surroundings, and found that the turn in front was about 40 meters wide.

“Alright, let’s do this!” Ye Chong decided on his strategy.

He may not know what the buzzing sound implied, but it was never wrong to make the first move.

He took down two of the leaf pouches on his waist and opened them carefully. These were two different kinds of knockout agents. They were both highly effective, and without color or smell, just like the rest of the knockout agents he prepared.

Ye Chong spreaded them out evenly at the bend, moving with familiar ease. These two agents had an effective radius of about 50 to 80 meters, enough to cover the entire bend. A wide perimeter of knockout agents covered the entire bend.

The valley had no wind, and that was very advantageous for Ye Chong.

After doing all this, Ye Chong quickly retreated 500 meters back, before hopping into one of the deep troughs for cover. He wanted to see what the thing was. He must have a direct observation of this creature. If the knockout agents were ineffective, he would have to figure out something else. Of course, this was all for future preparations.

The buzzing sound grew clearer and clearer. Ye Chong waited patiently in the trough, watching the bend closely. He was ready to make a run for it if the knockout agents did not work out.

Buzzzz! The sound grew louder abruptly, like a plucked string of thick metal wire.

From beyond the bend came a huge, dark swarm. The bend instantly fell into darkness.

Ye Chong inhaled deeply, his heart racing. However, his expression did not change. He was all ready to run for his life!

He had never seen so many flying insects before in his life. If these insects were immune to the knockout agents, then he would be in deep trouble. Combat skills were useless against an army of flying insects.

He stared straight at the bend in front of him, full of suspense.

plash! A black rain came down at the bend! The black swarm crashed down right at the bend, the dense swarm of black insects giving Ye Chong goosebumps. He was glad for doing what he did. Those insects filled him with dread as he watched.

The buzzing sound was clear as day now. The fact that Ye Chong could still stay calm spoke volumes of his courage.

The insects were slow and dumb. That was Ye Chong’s assessment of the flying insects. However, anyone who found themselves surrounded by the insects would die horribly. To Ye Chong, these insects may not be as dangerous as the star-shaped insects yesterday, but without any alchemy chemicals or mechs to help him, he would have only one option – escape. This was not a foe he could fight with bare handed combat.

The bend was not too wide, and with two full leaf pouches of knockout agents, the effect was quite satisfying. Up until now, none of the black insects had flew past the bend yet.

To any observer, these two knockout agents were the perfect insect exterminators. The ground was covered with a thick layer of black insects. However, the insects were not exactly intelligent, and continued to fly straight into the bend.

The insect rain continued on for a full 10 minutes. An entire flying army was thus silently vanquished.

With the buzzing sound gone, the valley returned to its initial silence.

Ye Chong waited for another five minutes, making sure that no more black insects were coming from beyond the bend before coming out of his trough.

He studied the black insects closely. They were thumb-sized, with three pairs of wings on their backs. Each insect’s body was covered with a black, metal-like shell. Under its pair of red compound eyes was a sharp, hollow needle. At the end of its tail was a black, sharp needle. These two must be its weapons. The black insects looked like hornets, but had a few differences with them too. Ye Chong could not determine what they were. The universe was full of all sorts of creatures.

He dismissed the problem quickly, since it was truly a waste of time trying to figure them out.

The knockout agents were ineffective against Ye Chong. He gathered all the black insects together on the ground, which piled up like a mound. In the end, knockout agents were not lethal, and they had an effective time limit.

Ye Chong carefully took out his redsand dehydrator and sprinkled them sparingly on the black mound. He could hear small splattering sounds, and the mound shrunk immediately like a melting snow mountain, except that it was happening all too quickly.

Once he saw to the end of the black insects, Ye Chong returned his redsand dehydrator back to its pouch, satisfied with its work. He would not want any of those black insects to attack him later from behind. Who knew how long those two knockout agents were effective against these insects?

Even though Ye Chong had won, he did not let down his guard. Instead, his two dangerous encounters had led him to become more careful.

He advanced slowly. The land grew more treacherous, and often times he would have to climb to move forward.

Ye Chong was surprised to find there to be a small river in this place. The river zigzagged its way down from high above, bringing life to the valley. Years of water flow shaped the surface of the solid rocks, leaving big and small troughs here and there like a crisscrossing network. The river branched and converged along the troughs as it flowed down, and finally seeped through the creaks of the rocks into an underground river.

Perhaps it was due to the water, but Ye Chong found the occasional plant in this area, holding onto their lives as they sprouted from the cracks between the rocks.

The further up he went, the larger the river flow, and the more plants he saw.

Ye Chong estimated that he must be about two thousand meters above where he started. The ground was growing level, and he could see small islands of vegetation here. The plant looked healthy, unlike the dead atmosphere in the valley. Here, the temperature was warm enough, and the weather suitable for life. Ye Chong was surprised to see animals here too, scampering off as he made his way through. The only thing that did not fit into the picture was Ye Chong himself. He looked alerted, stepping lightly in preparation, the wooden spear in hand.

Ye Chong abruptly halted. His eyes lit up, and his pulse raced.

He had found signs of human life! There, on the soft grassy plain was the trace of human footsteps. Ye Chong crouched down to have a closer look. Judging from the freshly broken blades of the grass, this person must have been here not too long ago.

Nonetheless, Ye Chong did not get overexcited. That would only get him in danger. His vigilance did its work once again, and he quickly calmed down. He knew nothing about this person, about whether he would be received with friendliness or hostility. Staying on his guard would maximize his chances of survival.

Ye Chong followed the trail.

“Who is it?” A voice abruptly sounded by Ye Chong’s ear. He felt a sudden dizziness. Ye Chong was surprised, but he reacted immediately, rolling to the side into a bush. When he reached a small tree, he suddenly leapt up and landed on the tree. Any combat expert would be amazed by his feat.

His every movement was flawless. His reaction time was amazing, and his hiding location was excellent. From above the tree, he could watch everything around him while staying hidden behind the leaves.

Logically, Ye Chong should have had the upper hand right away.

However, he was surprised to find things not as simple as they seemed to be.

“Humph!” The voice humped coldly out of nowhere.

His battle instinct, honed by long experiences in actual combat, warned him of extreme danger! Right after the voice, he felt something binding his body when in fact, there was nothing around him.

The woman in white training garb came to mind – Rui Bing! That was his first thought, which was weird! However, he did not have time to think about it. If the voice was not male, he would have thought it was Rui Bing. He was very familiar with this form of attack, having sparred frequently with Rui Bing.

He was surprised, but still composed.

Ye Chong’s eyes grew focused, and his vision began to fill up with many blue lines, swimming around like fishes.

The blues lines were changing drastically, and Ye Chong’s vision was filled with the sight of them. He did not panic, however. This was familiar to him.

As expected, the ever-changing blue lines suddenly undergone a drastic change, and began to converge onto a spot. His vision was now all cleared up except for a blue dot.

Unlike Rui Bing’s, this blue dot was a lot fainter.

Ye Chong’s eyes lit up. The wooden spear in his hand came to life. A black figure shot its way across the air.

The wooden spear met its target, hitting the blue spot. From the feel of his hand, Ye Chong felt that he had stabbed through something, but he was surprised to find the binding on him still there! Based on his experience fighting Rui Bing, he could always make it go away once he attacked the blue dot.

However, that strong feeling of restriction around Ye Chong’s body persisted.

“Huh?” The man hidden in the shadows sounded surprised.

Ye Chong did not panic because of this unexpected outcome. His arm muscles contracted abruptly, and the wooden spear began to vibrate at high frequency. The ironwood was strong, and when the spear vibrated, it became a terribly powerful weapon. Snap! A soft sound was heard. Ye Chong felt his body go loose, and the restraint was gone.

Ye Chong moved without hesitation, his body now a blur. Without knowing his enemy’s position, the best option would be to move fast to prevent being targeted, and try to locate his enemy.

“Jie expert!” The hidden assaulter’s voice was full of surprise, and even a little joy.

Ye Chong turned. The man had exposed his location through his voice.

Ye Chong’s explosive power propelled him forward like an arrow!

A mentalist!

When Ye Chong had his first look of the attacker, his mind immediately supplied a name for him. Mentalists were a mysterious bunch, and he had not seen one for a long while. The last time was in the Orbits.

Mentalists were easy to recognize. They always wore a light green robe, and dressed plainly. More importantly, they had a unique aura about them, and Ye Chong could easily identify them. Be it Jia Zhuo or Mr Yin, both had left a deep impression in Ye Chong.

Mu or Shang had even interrogated Mr Yin for a lot of information about mentalist training, but it was a pity that, unlike with other skills, Ye Chong had absolutely no talent for it. He had kept practicing meditation to no avail. If meditation was not useful for combat, Ye Chong would have abandoned it a long time ago.

This mentalist had long white hair that reached down smoothly all the way to his waist. His smooth face made him look incredibly young. Only the crow’s feet showed his true age. He had a mature, weather-worn face and a refreshing smile. Donning light green clothing, the white-haired man stood out easily. Despite his heavily discolored clothing with many tears to match, he still looked like a composed gentleman.

“What a young Jie expert!” The white-haired man did not sound hostile, and even said this with a smile.

Ye Chong did not reply. He was estimating the distance between tem. If he launched himself forward, what were the odds of him killing the man in one blow? Mentalists were too mysterious, and even Mu or Shang did not know much about them.

More importantly, this white-haired mentalist was very strong!

he white-haired mentalist smiled as though he could read Ye Chong’s thoughts, and spoke up first, “Relax, relax, I come in peace. Oh, you should know that mentalists are very sensitive.”

Ye Chong knew this alright. Mentalists were all about mental training. They were more sensitive than the average person. Even combat experts with their strong six senses were no match for the mentalists. Strong mentalists could even do something akin to having premonitions, and even Mu or Shang did not understand the reason behind this.

It was a queer phenomenon, but a true one, and Ye Chong had seen it in action himself. Back when he fought against Feng Su, the woman’s fighting techniques had left a deep impression in him. The truth was, Feng Su was not all that great in combat, but he was the one who was in a tight spot when they fought.

Ye Chong was not afraid of these abstract concepts. He knew more about mentalists than the average person. Nothing in this world is absolute. These skills were only a kind of element, like speed and strength. Mentalists were just people who were particularly skilled in this element.

They stood with 15 meters between them. Ye Chong did not attack immediately, since he was not confident of succeeding. It was obvious that this white-haired man was much more powerful than Mr Yin in the Orbits. That mental restriction on him was also more powerful than Rui Bing’s. Who knew if he had other ways of attacking! WIth 15 meters between them, it would only take him an instant to cover the distance. However, he also knew that while mentalists were physically weaker, their attacks were usually faster than combat experts.

They attack by controlling the mind.

That was a bit iffy. Back on the trash planet, Mu had told Ye Chong about the importance of having spirit when attacking. However, Ye Chong had only really achieved this with his lance techniques, which was also when he achieved Jie. However, even as a Jie expert, he could do little in terms of controlling the mind. On the other hand, Rui Bing as a Jie expert outdid him in this field. She could even perform purely mental attacks.

Of course, Ye Chong had no opinion on that. He was in pursuit of strength. Strength was the result of a combination of factors, and not just some specific ones. Besides, everyone had their own unique ways of combat. Ye Chong, for example, excel in physical strength and speed. The September Lan Family’s muscle control techniques allowed him to perform miraculous feats with his body. Aside from physical strength, speed and mind, there were many other elements at play, such as experience and tactics.

“Who are you?” Ye Chong asked, his plain voice sounding hard and expressionless.

The white-haired mentalist was not offended. He smiled gently and said, “I am Huang Baiyi, a mentalist.” Huang Baiyi was not exactly handsome, but his demeanor and charisma were flawless. His voice was calm and steady, without any awkwardness. His calm demeanor was entirely opposite of Ye Chong’s calmness; the former was warm, the latter cold.

Ye Chong was doing a lot better now, as he could partially hide his killing intent. This was unlike before, when he was like an unsheathed blade, always so noticeable and not fitting in whenever he went.

“Huang?” Ye Chong’s eyes widened. “Do you know Huang Jiming?” He was very touchy with the subject of the Three Aristocratic Families. As members of Xi Feng Clan, most women had the surname Feng, while men had the surname Huang. Huang Jiming was one of the elites of Xi Feng Clan. If this white-haired mentalist was from Xi Feng Clan, he must know him.

“Huang Jiming?” Huang Baiyi paused in thought, and shook his head. “Don’t know him. Who’s he?” His expression was open, nothing suspicious about him at all. More importantly, his pulse did not change.

He was not lying. Ye Chong calmed down. This was the free space zone, and it was very unlikely to meet a member of the Xi Feng Clan.

“Is he your enemy?” Huang Baiyi asked, curious.

“No,” Ye Chong answered crisply.

Huang Baiyi laughed softly and studied Ye Chong with interest. “My young friend, how old are you?”

“Why should I tell you?” Ye Chong asked bluntly.

Huang Baiyi was surprised, and laughed heartily. “Okay, okay. How about this? I’ll ask you a question, you’ll ask me a question. Quid pro quo, and you have to answer all questions posed. What do you think?”

Ye Chong thought about it, and nodded. “Alright.” He too had many questions of his own. Perhaps this man could provide him some answers.

Huang Baiyi smiled and said, “Alright, hmm, I’ll ask first. Consider that my first question.”

“23,” Ye Chong answered as briefly as possible.

Huang Baiyi’s eyes lit up with surprised. “Amazing! A Jie expert at such a young age, your future is full of potential! Hmm, your turn then.”

Ye Chong tilted his head and gave it a moment’s thought before saying, “I’d like to know your true strength.” This was what Ye Chong needed to know right now, as it will guide him in making the right decisions.

Huang Baiyi was caught off guard, and smiled wryly. “Now that’s a hard one. I don’t know how much you know about mentalists. Mentalists are not like your world of combat, where there are clear delineation of levels in strength and achievement. Mentalists have no such levels, so I don’t know how to describe my true strength.” He pondered for a moment before continuing, “I began practising meditation when I was six, and it’s been 60 years since. I reached my first bottleneck at 30, my second at 45. As for my abilities, well, I’m not too bad compared to the other mentalists.”

He spoke his last sentence lightly, but it was tinged with absolute confidence.

Ye Chong was shocked. If this man had practised meditation since six years old, and it had been 60 years since, then he must be 66 years old now. He could not reconcile the image of this white-haired middle-aged man and an elderly.

Bottlenecks were something that anyone strong enough will have. Reaching a bottleneck meant that that person had achieved a significant level of proficiency. To the average person, reaching one bottleneck was already considered miraculous.

Ye Chong had only reached his first bottleneck so far. It was when he broke through this bottleneck that he attained Jie. His second bottleneck did not seem likely. This man must be quite powerful if he had broke through two bottlenecks! While he did not know if bottlenecks had the same meaning for mentalists as they were for combat experts, he was sure that this man must be very powerful.

“Err, if you’re not happy with my answer, you can ask another question. This one doesn’t count.” Huang Baiyi’s easy and open attitude was easily likeable.

Ye Chong shook his head. “No need. You ask.” From the confident voice of Huang Baiyi, he already had his answer.

“Are you interested in learning the skills of mentalists?” Huang Baiyi looked straight into Ye Chong’s eyes, and quickly explained, “Haha, you’ll know how dull life is here very soon. It’s better to find something to do to pass the time.”

“No,” Ye Chong answered with certainty. He had no talent in the realm of the mind. This he knew from a long history of experimentation. Besides, he was already studying a large mix of skills. What he had to do know was to consolidate them. Picking up too many skills would only leave him unaccomplished in all of them.

Ye Chong’s solid rejection surprised Huang Baiyi. However, he quickly recovered and nodded. “Each to their own. Some things you can’t force.” He spoke with equanimity, suggesting a very open and tolerant personality.

It was Ye Chong’s turn. “What is this place?”

Huang Baiyi took a curious glance at Ye Chong. “You don’t know? How did you end up here? This is the Black Forest, the most dangerous place on Dankwood planet. You’re lucky, considering that you’ve survived so far.”

Huang Baiyi sat down as he continued, “I know what you want to ask. However, I don’t know the way out. Guess how long I’ve been staying here.”

“How long?” Ye Chong could not help but asked.

“10 years!”

Ye Chong fell silent. For someone to live here alone for 10 years, it must be a maddening experience.

Huang Baiyi smiled, unperturbed. “It’s not a bad place, actually. There’s no war, no fights. Once, I was lonely, but now you’ve arrived. I’m curious, though, how did you end up here? Even a Jie expert, it’s very unlikely for you to survive the Black Forest unscathed.”

“I know a little alchemy,” Ye Chong answered.

“I see! The Black Forest is an alchemist’s paradise, but also a place of death! He was spot on. Ye Chong agreed with him. Black Forest offered alchemy ingredients in abundance, and was definitely a paradise for alchemists. However, this also made the place dangerous. The average alchemist would not survive for long in the Black Forest.

Huang Baiyi looked at Ye Chong curiously, and said almost jokingly, “To think that I’d meet a genius. A Jie expert skilled in alchemy. Haha, that’s a powerful combination of skills!” It seemed that he was familiar with all these different occupations.

Ye Chong no longer felt like killing him anymore. If Huang Baiyi was speaking the truth, then it would be important to have a comrade here. He knew from his experience on the trash planet that loneliness was a much harder fight to win against compared to physical battles.

However, Ye Chong did not give up. He would study this area himself.

uang Baiyi was kind of a nice person. That was Ye Chong’s conclusion after interacting with him for few days. He was both well-educated and well-mannered, while he was so experienced in socialization that even Ye Chong started to grow on him.

“Did you discover anything?” asked Huang Baiyi.

Ye Chong was obliged to scout the area daily to look for the way out here. Well, Huang Baiyi had done that before, while being a little pessimistic, he still asked Ye Chong in a concerned manner.

“Nope,” shook Ye Chong. He in fact had yet discovered a path out here. There were technically two and two directions only, where one led towards the Black Forest, the other led up the slope to the peak at which one would be welcomed by the deadly cliff. It did not sound so bad if one possessed a mech. Leaving the place would only be a matter of time even with a Raven. Unfortunately, sadly, coincidentally, Ye Chong just had nothing in his hand. The waist bag of all technology and hope in his possession had already been handed to Rui Bing during the emergency back then.

Technology is truly strength! The truest hope!

That was the lesson of his life.

“Well, take your time. You would get it someday. Not like we are in a hurry anyway,” comforted Huang Baiyi, who had gotten used to the place over the course of 10 years. He was practically cold-hearted on ever leaving the place. It was rather satisfying that god decided to bestow him a companion in this labyrinth.

“Mhm,” muttered Ye Chong as he twisted the grilling fish. If there was no other way out, then he had to join the Black Forest again. So there was this deep pond with fish of a particular species about the size of his palm and tasted fair. It would not be a chore to get some fancy spices from the forest to enhance their meals but passing the valley had become a taboo for him ever since those horrible lifeforms approached him. Luckily his second cautious visit ended safely and meals of the following days had turned better.

Huang Baiyi was not the carnivore in the team, he favored the berries, which the fact was peculiar to Ye Chong that it felt like a miracle when Huang Baiyi had not suffered from nutritional deficiency in the past 10 years.

Ye Chong would get him some berries on every visit to the Black Forest, since the forest offered way better variety than the outskirt. Huang Baiyi was frail, that every tiny travel sounded like taking his life as he panted. Ye Chong was pretty much amazed of how Huang Baiyi was once able to get so high on the slope.

“So…,” initiated Huang Baiyi, chewing the last bit of berry, “are you sure you don’t want to learn anything about Mentalist… not at all?”

“No,” replied Ye Chong promptly.

“Uhh… We would need something else to kill the time…,” The man pondered, “Do you know chess?” with expectation in his eyes, he asked.

“I don’t know,” shook Ye Chong. Mu had never taught him the dance of chess pieces over the board, though he remembered how Mu once was engaged in the duel with Little Rock on that.

“How about I teach you then?” Huang Baiyi remained persistent.

“No thanks,” promptly Ye Chong replied.

“Why?” Huang Baiyi was bewildered.

“What good can it do to me?” Ye Chong seemed more perplexed than the man.

“Well, you could kill fair amount of time with it?” answered Huang Baiyi

“Time is precious. Don’t just kill it.” Ye Chong did not seem to perceive the man.

“What?” Huang Baiyi’s eyes enlarged, “Tell me, what do you do for pastime then?”

“Learning… Practicing…” He went silent, “Oh and… thinking.”

“What else?” asked Huang Baiyi.

“What do you mean by ‘what else’?” Ye Chong was finding the question ridiculous, “What else can I do when I have no more time?”

Huang Baiyi’s ultimate mentalist’s mentality seemed to have cracked…

“You are only doing these, everyday?”

“Not exactly,” corrected Ye Chong. “There were also biological activities like eating and sleeping to sustain my living. 90% of the time would be on these 3 activities I’ve mentioned, with 10% as the buffer.”

“I see…” Huang Baiyi’s laugh sounded dry as the sand, “Do you find it interesting then…”

“Interesting?” Ye Chong tilted his head, pondered, “It’s always interesting to see your strength improving, isn’t it?” Probably that would be his favorite pastime then…

“Right, right.” Suddenly Huang Baiyi felt his linguistic ability had regressed decades behind, he was at loss of words.

…

It was a moment of silence, then he asked, “Do you have a life goal then?”

“Life goal?” Ye Chong was astonished, as his mind chewed on the phrase with Mu Shang and Rui Bing flashing by… “Com…” Something escaped his lips, “Companion. To find companion.”

“Good goal.” Huang Baiyi was calm again, briefly he smiled, “Better than what I had in mind when I was your age.”

“My age?” That was when Ye Chong realized this very man was already 66 years old.

“Yeah.” The old man was sentimental, “When I was your age, all I thought was how to avenge myself, even till 10 years ago.” His tone was filled with the bitterness of the missing youth.

“Avenge?” Ye Chong’s brows rose. That term was not foreign to his ears, as he once, too, had the same thought. He wanted to avenge his Papa, but that mission had gone unheard in the following arcs, while he also had seen through the vanity of the world. Papa will never return even if Ye Chong went and slaughtered every villain behind the scene. It did not sound like an optimal choice if he was too consumed by it. Ye Chong held the same attitude towards his identity. Probably… the Ye family had something to do with him, but what about that? He never agreed to the family, and never once he thought he was related to them anyhow.

He had Mu Shang… mhm, and Rui Bing. Well, it felt a little complicated to define the relationship with her but, in short, Ye Chong felt these individuals were the truest intimate he could imagine.

Other than these intimates, he could not think of any relationship that he should care. After countless battles as he wandered in the galaxies all these years, Ye Chong had learned what to fight for.

Sigh… I shall… pick a safe place and settle down, living in tranquility after I reunited with Mu Shang and Rui Bing.

This was his sole wish, his greatest wish.

“Yes, to avenge.” Huang Baiyi’s nostalgic voice broke Ye Chong’s schemata, “Though I no longer feel anything of it, I in fact was once a person in search of avenger.”

“Why?”

“The clan. I was from a clan, a great clan.” Pride was heard in his words, “Well, once a great clan. We were glorious… but I had never experienced the glory… There were only 13 men left when I was born. And I, was the sole descendant…”

Ye Chong flinched as he remembered a portion of history he had learned before. It was a brief lesson but he was able to grasp the gist of it, in which a tribe or clan would probably be dead when there was hardly a population remained in the world. With one single descendant, it was not even possible to reproduce.

“Our bloodline is rather peculiar, as we could pass certain traits of our family to offspring only of parents from the same tribe. Well, hah, you could say our tribe is long done-for when I was born.” His eyes wailed, “And I learned the past only after I grew up. Our tribe was never this desolate, as we were once the natives of the free space zone, yes, the true innate local natives. But on one day, a large population surged the area, with a way higher technological standard in comparison, though they too did not fancy the technology. They were friendly too. They even invited the few main tribes over for tea, that includes us, of course. We were the brightest after all. However… after the few tribes of population witnessed the greatness of the outsiders’ technologies, things changed, as the residents parted…”

“Few members of the group imagined leaving the space zone would guarantee them the best future, while the others insisted on preserving the traditions. Eventually, as what you might have presumed, the tribe broke up as those few members left the place, whereas the remaining slowly got buried by time.”

Ye Chong felt his brain was struck by something, “Xi Feng!” The phrase escaped, he remembered that the little boy once mentioned that the Xi Feng clan was once a part of the residents in the free space zone.

“Hm?” Feng Baiyi seemed surprised, “Never expected you would know that.” He gave a smile wryly, “I thought only people of the older generation would remember our tribe.” Well it seemed like he was not aware that he was already old enough to be part of the older generation.

Ye Chong then became calm, probably the “Xi Feng clan” he mentioned was not quite the tribe Feng Baiyi had told in the story, since Feng Baiyi would never expect this very young man was an absolute outsider at this place.

“As soon as I started getting aware of this world, I always hold one ambition, that is, to find the lost tribal members who left the space zone in the past, though I have no idea what I could do if I ever find them, hah… isn’t that funny, or even ridiculous? Hahaha… I just wanted to find them, after all. I tried asking around, by hook or by crook, via kind words or threatening ones, eventually I got news, bad news… that those outsiders had destroyed the pathway right after our compatriots left the place, thus the utter isolation of the space zone with the outside world, and my deepest grief…”

Ye Chong was silent. He knew there must be another way that could lead them to He Yue… well, at least that one path they once took turned out to be one, maybe?

“Not too long after this, I had hit a dead end of my training, and I began wandering, looking for a breakthrough, and that was when I encountered our men…” Feng Baiyi’s calm eyes suddenly tightened, the mood intensified!

Ye Chong was shocked by the pressure exerted in the atmosphere. Such mentality… that it could drive Ye Chong away….

Feng Baiyi quickly withdrew the tension as he gave an apologetic smile, “I’m not sure of your understanding on the expertise of Mentalist, but it is similar to the martial arts, in which there are several branches, styles holding different beliefs and masteries. And our tribe, because of our bloodline, trained entirely differently than the folks out there. So, I did recognize them, at first sight, during the first moment of encounter. They should be the direct offspring of our tribe but… strangely their performance was extremely low…”

“Maybe you could not understand how mentalist works but generally offsprings of our tribe are born mentalists, yet awkwardly the energy they exuded was not purely of the mentality, there was something else…”

Mentalist Pilot?! The term flashed in Ye Chong’s mind.

Yes, since pilot was still the trend in the outside world and Ye Chong remembered the strength of this kind of pilot.

“And I won. On a 1 versus 3.” The statement went flat, as if a report, even though it sent shock to Ye Chong’s perception. Those Mentalist Pilots of the Sanctuary were strong enough to break an entire army and Feng Baiyi could challenge a one-on-three. Of what strength did he wield? And those pilots he encountered were merely the troops at the outermost defense, imagine the pilots from the core. Of what psychic would it possess?

“Yes, I won. But I was not pleased by it. Not at all. Instead, I was mad, utterly angered. The first time I felt the actual rage burning in my soul since I was born, as I never expected their psychic ability to be this substandard. Did they discard even the very last bit of our tradition? Did they not? And I went on an investigation just to taste that earth-shattering truth. They had changed, the last bit of tradition had vaporized as their will. They had turned more intrusive than before. The worst part was… they seemed to have an indescribable relationship with the Abductor.”

Abductor? They are related to Xi Feng clan?! What exactly is Xi Feng clan?!

“So I began wandering again, looking for Abductors to hunt. My target was simple, I just wanted them to recognize the strength of Mentalist so that they would regret themselves and pick up the tradition they once trashed before.”

Well…

Ye Chong shook his head slightly. Be it a Mentalist or a Martial Arts Practitioners, humans were still humans. They are fragile. They are frail. Fleshes only get grilled on metal and do not break through it. Mechs dominated the world for a reason.

“I would have a careful scouting at every place. And as soon as I seized one Abductor, the rest would never run, their nest would be busted,” flatly Huang Baiyi elaborated. Ye Chong knew the old man was not exaggerating his story, since mental manipulation was the Mentalist’s game. Hypnosis, behavioral control were the common practices even by the trainees. Let alone the super Mentalists like Huang Baiyi.

“I spent the next three years doing the same. And I did make a breakthrough since then, sadly, there was great restriction imposed on the spaceship of the free space zone. It was a hassle to even sneak in. So I lost my progress there, or they would have been a goner.” The flat statement was ironed with threats.

“Wait, there is spaceship in the space zone?” Ye Chong rose, the question went word-by-word precisely, since it was unimaginable to have a spaceship, a craft of the finest technology in a primitive space zone that would go against it.

Like how in the space zone do they have a spaceship?

Spaceships are indeed a rare sight in the space zone but they still exist, since this was not the only planet in the zone, and it is unavoidable to make contact with the other planets. I had heard that the development, the technique specifically for building the spaceships was also one of the ‘gifts’ brought by those outsiders during their visit that year. Normally, a planet would be facilitated with only two spaceships which would be under possession of the two largest tribes of the planet. For example on Dankwood, the Han family and Renlo tribe own the two limited ships, although they hardly used the ships, only during the Congregation perhaps,” elaborated Huang Baiyi as Ye Chong appeared to be confused in his eyes.

“Congrega-what?” Ye Chong did not quite get the foreign term.

“You don’t know what Congregation is?” Huang Baiyi’s stare grew foreign, “With your capabilities, how would you ever be uninvited to a Congregation? Did your teacher disallow you from joining the event?”

“I don’t know.” The plain, honest reply from Ye Chong was even more confusing.

“Maybe your teacher did not wish you to be distracted by things other than the training. Well then, you have a good teacher there.” Huang Baiyi was sentimental, but towards Ye Chong’s ever-confused expression, he went on explaining, “A Congregation is an event that happened once every 5 years and is held on Planet Risserd, in which all participants are the topmost experts in every planet out there. It is an important event in the space zone. There are many categories, but martial arts, mystic arts (the mentalist expertise mostly) and alchemy are given much greater attention, as they have the most yardsticks. Every planet has their own set of standards of 10 each on these categories. But, to a planet, 10 yardsticks are a bit less and over the top for decorative purposes, as the competition is far greater in actuality, many people had died during the process. Sigh, all for an impractical fame. Your teacher has a better insight in this! To not let you join the event!” Huang Baiyi gave out a loud sigh, shaking his head.

“Have you joined the Congregation before?” asked Ye Chong, curiously.

“Yes I did.” Frankly he replied, “Thrice. But I had never become a champion. Not even once.” His tone remained flat, as if the statement was more factual than a fantasy to he himself. It felt like a fantasy to Ye Chong however, as it was not very long since he came to this tiny barren-looking village of the Wangs and he had already encountered quite a number of adepts. Now, set back and imagine, with the area and population of experts multiplied into size of a planet… Huang Baiyi was surely something for he was able to pass the selection process and joined the Congregation thrice at least.

Not that shocked… to be honest. Not like the shock-shocked, jump-shocked, scream-shocked kind of shock, not the kind like fandom on the forum discussing the latest moves of the mysterious YC, Ye Chong had met countless miracle-manufacturing experts since he encountered Mu Shang. Be those experts from the field of piloting, martial arts or the alchemy or those from the darker side like the Mavericks, these surfacing figures already had convinced him that there would always be a greater one somewhere out there, only whether known or not known to the humanity.

“The Wangs?” Huang Baiyi sounded very familiar to every force in the place, “You meant the family of the Segean Sea? They were great once in the past, although they were already facing regression the moment they migrated too the coast of Seagean Sea. Speaking of them, I truly wonder what had happened to them all these years… But I guess their forces lingered somehow so they are still far better off than most folks like us,” muttered Huang Baiyi as he tried reminiscing the past, “Oh yes, they once had quite a figure in the tribe, a Jie expert if I remember correctly… he joined the Congregation too… He should be in his eighties now, well, given that he’s still alive, though I remember he seemed to have banished his own skills 20 years ago… on an accident? He apparently committed some taboo of his own kind… Wait, why the Wangs all of sudden? Is any of them your teacher?”

“Nope,” shook Ye Chong.

Okay, wow, the Wangs haven’t even flashed their trump yet. Luckily I did not join the war directly or it would be bad, very bad… But what about Rui Bing and the others… I wonder what had happened to all of them…

“Oh…” Huang Baiyi’s eyes, trained by encounters over ages, recognized the expression of Ye Chong, “You seek to avenge? You have bad blood with the family? Well, with your skills, I don’t think you would be terribly sorry in the fight. Wait, so did the elderly show up? Or… they have a new Jie expert?”

“They came in waves,” concisely Ye Chong replied.

“What?” Huang Baiyi was bewildered, “Don’t tell me your teacher never informed you any rules and regulation here before letting you out… You can’t be challenging the authority all alone on a whim, it’s an embarrassment.”

Ye Chong was wordless. It had been a nice chat with Huang Baiyi but he would not want to reveal himself being an utter outsider to the place, not just yet.

…

“Sigh! Let’s stop talking about this! It’d be pointless if we are stuck here!” That was when Huang Baiyi realized they had sailed way off the course, although he was so indulged in chattering at the moment, “So, what’s your best move?” And so he initiated a new, better topic.

“Lancing.” It took Ye Chong a while to spit the two syllables. He was puzzled by the question, to be honest, since he was technically an all-rounded fighter. He was good at muscle control, exceptional in strength, speed and accuracy. He was also agile in hand-on-hand, or an armed fight with his dagger. He probably was good at everything while being exceptionally good at nothing. If he were to spit something, lancing seemed to be it?

“By lancing you meant this?” Huang Baiyi’s glance set upon Ye Chong’s wooden lance. Well, Ye Chong no longer possessed a mech, so any form of weaponry would be his key to survival. He had been carrying the wooden lance since forever.

“Yeah,” he replied briefly.

“Oh! A lancer!” Huang Baiyi lowered his eyes, reminiscing again, “I do remember there were few adepts of lancing, but lancers do not seem to be as common as swordsmen…” Ye Chong’s glance was sending him the awkward signal, “Well, ummm, uh, since, little I know being a Mentalist, not an actual martial arts practitioner.”

“To be frank, I did once discuss the issue with the real deal before, and his comments left in my mind forever. He once said that, the weapon might be different, the technique might be different, but the core factor, the determiners to its mastery are always the same few. Do you know what those determiners are?” He looked at Ye Chong interestingly.

“Strength. Speed. Spirit.” Ye Chong said without hesitation, then he held for a while, as something came to his mind, “Maybe the Angles too. And timing. Yeah, these two should form the factor of ‘Position’, both spatial and temporal. Hm, yeah, position.”

Huang Baiyi remained silent. His mouth was half open.

“What’s wrong? Were my answers wrong?” He then went on pondering his answers earlier for the next three minutes, “It should be right.” He lifted his head as he stood strong for his claim.

“You are right indeed,” replied Huang Baiyi with sentiments, as he stared at Ye Chong, “You are brilliant for a twenty-three-year-old, knowing the working of this.”

“The senior said the same exact reply to me that year. In a typical martial arts execution, Spirit is not as apparent as Strength, Speed or Position, and it would only manifest itself during some occasion when you had achieved a greater self… which I guess you had experienced it well enough.”

Ye Chong nodded his head approvingly.

Finally! Huang Baiyi was excited, as he finally found the lighter to Ye Chong’s interest! And they began discussing passionately on the determiners of martial arts, with focus on the factor of Spirit. It felt like a talk between a child and an adult at the beginning. The child was Ye Chong of course due to his lack of understanding on Spirit in this, but both of their positions soon switched when other factors came into light.

Their friendship grew rapidly, as Huang Baiyi had appeared to be an inquisitive educated man in Ye Chong’s eyes, which was quite his type… Hah, but the irony was, both of them knew well deep in their hearts, that the passionate conversation was merely a mean to kill time. It was only logical for Huang Baiyi to act so excitingly when he finally discovered a companion, and something that he could work hard with that companion.

The motive was not the concern as Ye Chong was amazed by Huang Baiyi’s mental capabilities which appeared to be almost peculiar and otherworldly to him. The capabilities were unpredictable enough to earn Ye Chong’s respect, since… well, as his policy would go – strength determines hierarchy.

Coincidentally, Huang Baiyi was also as surprised as Ye Chong, no, maybe even more surprised than Ye Chong who looked literally like a monster with those monstrous strength inside his feeble-looking body. Ye Chong reacted quickly, like too quickly while his tenacity was great as he kept his “hobbies” at all eternity. Ye Chong had never stopped spending the rest of his day “pondering” ever since their first encounter.

And Ye Chong, as he said, also did practices. No entertainment, no flashy movement, just the good old-fashioned basic moves. Ye Chong seemed really enjoyed doing it. Huang Baiyi discerned few hundred thousands times of repetition on the same exact movement by Ye Chong as an attempt to improvise it. Ye Chong would come to him, soaked in hot sweat after the practice everyday. Well, it would be very much shocking for a Jie expert like Ye Chong to get himself jammed on the same swing for a gazillion times.

That was when Huang Baiyi realized the fact that Ye Chong’s skills were mostly founded by these torturing, punishing, virtually destructive training the whole time.

Ye Chong also demonstrated his tremendous comprehension and thinking skills.

Such horror…

The only thing that annoyed Huang Baiyi was how Ye Chong insisted to not even have a session on the mystic arts with him, while ironically being extremely interested in the working of mental application, although the main focus had always revolved about the ways to overcome Mentalists in a fight. One could imagine Huang Baiyi’s quivering corners as he smiled along.

It was only a matter of time till Huang Baiyi realized he had become basically… a coach, more like a training partner, to be precise. Like most wizardry, his mentality was sustaining while his physical attributes were… well, it would be basically a painful comparison if his partner happened to be the inhuman Ye Chong. Huang Baiyi could feel his back withering after days of training, while Ye Chong remained alive and kicking.

I am indeed old… Hah, age is a terminal punishment.

The sentiments rose in his head again and again,.

He did not intend to retain his privacy however, as he never was the stingy person on knowledge-sharing, especially towards a fine diligent young man like Ye Chong. Ambition? Avenge? Appreciation? Those were no longer in his mind after being all alone in the last 10 years.

The simple life was still attractive to him… even though it was a lonesome life. Thought he.

He knew Ye Chong would leave here one day. But his knowledge-sharing session was never getting less passionate. It was a pity however, that Ye Chong was not (and not going to become) a Mentalist.

Sigh, probably the true mystic arts of the Xi Feng clan would mark its actual death very soon. Oh well… what can I do?

At least Huang Baiyi was forgiving on this, unlike his younger self.

Ye Chong caught that growing passion in Huang Baiyi’s session and worked harder. He might not become a Mentalist in the end, but he would acquire better understanding on the control of his spirit, his mentality, which should be able to enhance his attacks. Most importantly, he would find a way to fight against the Mentalists from Huang Baiyi’s session.

Even though he worked extra hard on learning, never once he stopped figuring out the way to escape this dangerous forest.

And he had just gotten a feasible proposition.

Here’s some information.

There are technically two directions from their current site. One descends towards the Black Forest across the valley, another ascends right up to the peak. As mentioned before, there is nothing but a deadly cliff on top of the peak where the mountains covered up the forest.

It would be a simple task if he had a mech, but sadly Ye Chong only had a dagger.

His preposition was… well, of course not making a mech, he might be the most talented craftsman but he was not a magician. Perhaps he could make a simple glider, he thought. The peak to the ground stood at a height about 3000 to 5000 meters. If nature was kind enough to not drastically change the direction of air, at great chance he would nail a safe landing. That would sound less like a dead-or-alive gamble compared to a trip to the Black Forest.

Thanks to the fundamental knowledge of mech production, Ye Chong was very much familiar to the theories of aerodynamics. A glider however, was something of the museum at that period. So Ye Chong could only design one from scratch based on calculation and the knowledge he had.

Huang Baiyi acted cooperatively the next few days, as he did not disturb Ye Chong, although a little bewildered by Ye Chong’s blatantly increased duration on his pondering session.

Ye Chong went to the Black Forest and returned with a broad log. It was quite a sight to see a feeble man carrying a giant log like toothpick. Huang Baiyi’s expression was priceless. The twigs had been removed by Ye Chong promptly, judging by the fresh cuts on the surface.

“What are you going to do with this?” asked Ye Chong in confusion. He simply could not figure out the hows and whys.

Ye Chong worked on, without lifting his head, “Something to fly.”

“Something to what?” Huang Baiyi could not believe his ears. He had neither seen an actual mech, nor learned aerodynamic. The only inorganic substance that could fly was probably a spaceship to him.

But spaceship? Log wood?

… How?

Ye Chong carried on slicing. His dagger was the perfect tool for this. It was sharp enough to slice Ironwood, so it was nothing strange that he could cut this piece of log effortlessly. Ye Chong picked the trunk of a wood named Sandtree. The hardness and durability were great. The best thing was this kind of tree had a rather balanced quality across the entire trunk. So it would be convenient for Ye Chong to perform a calculation on its center of gravity.

No processor, no fancy technology, all Ye Chong could rely to realize his proposition was his head and his brain.

e Chong’s life suddenly got all busy and lively. Well, it was not much of a hassle to design a glider, rather the problem laid within the parts necessary for the building process – what parts would make up the portion, how they would fit in the entire dynamic and what material Ye Chong could use that just so happened to be in the forest. To figure that out, Ye Chong paid another visit to the Black Forest, in search of the appropriate materials.

Whenever Ye Chong began crafting things, Huang Baiyi would be watching by, with interests zapping from his eyes. And every time Ye Chong demonstrated his impeccable control of strength exerted on even the smallest parts, gasps and compliments would escape Huang Baiyi, to be ignored by Ye Chong however.

The breathtaking sight was justifiable. Anyone would be gasping as much as Huang Baiyi when they saw that broad log shrinking in Ye Chong’s grip gradually like magic, as Ye Chong’s hands swung gracefully his dagger.

Huang Baiyi gave a stare at the strange parts around and set his bewilderment upon this unfriendly, withdrawn young man, as he wondered what exactly the young man was. At first, Huang Baiyi assumed the young man to be merely a hardworking student once imprisoned by his master doing training deep in the woods, and was liberated at last. But hey, crafting parts from scratch was not included in a typical lesson plan of a martial arts practitioner.

Huang Baiyi had travelled to countless places, met with countless entities when he was young. And those parts on the ground convincingly were the essence of an ample amount of knowledge one possessed. Martial arts practitioners were no scholar – it was a truth universally acknowledged. Sure there were practitioners with variation in personalities. He had seen the crude brawler, the cold-blooded, the gentleman, the tenacious adventurer, but never once he had encountered a scholarly fighter, especially of such age.

A man’s time has its limits since he was born, and every field has its own depth deeper than the sea.

It would take generally the entire life of a person to master one single field. Martial arts practitioners would master their physique, as what their harsh training would define, with countless repetition of the same move attempting to make breakthrough and discovery. Huang Baiyi might be unaware of what field a glider would exactly originate, surely it would be a field that required massive calculation.

Unlike martial arts practitioners, it was more likely for one to encounter a scholarly Mentalist.

Huang Baiyi did not intend to inquire however, as he had technically perceived Ye Chong’s temper these days and he would not wish to disrupt their founded relationship hard to come by because of a silly, trivial question.

He was more concerned on the conversation with Ye Chong, of the working of the ancient mystic arts. The true Xi Feng clan had died decades ago. So it was his sole wish to pass these knowledge to Ye Chong at the very least. Those were from the ancients after all, that he would not want them to permanently depart from the world along someday.

The misfortune was, Ye Chong did not seem interested in becoming a Mentalist. The fortunate was however, Ye Chong seemed intrigued of the mystic arts, although merely because it was Ye Chong’s habit to go too deep into everything.

Huang Baiyi eventually stopped mentioning the word “Mentalist” and just instilled Ye Chong with the theories of mental manipulation.

“Alright, so, the core of mystic arts is merely about manipulation of mentality, your own mentality that is. Well, of course, this is not a theory I came up during my sleep. This theory could be verified. So first off, what is mentality? Is it attitude? Is it your senses? Generally, there had been lots of definitions going on in the field, like it could mean your soul, your spirit, some said…”

Huang Baiyi got pumped up as he saw that concentrated stare of Ye Chong. His aged face remained calm as he explained. Most of the ideologies were passed down to Ye Chong through the little talk of his.

Whenever a concept was mentioned he would need to provide a generous amount of example, like an actual application of a certain technique, that was when Huang Baiyi became utterly detailed on his explanation. Ye Chong was focused even on the details. It was a journey of 60 years when Huang Baiyi began his training and he had gained temperament throughout the 10 year stay in the Black Forest. The rich experience from fights in the past, the foundation he was given when he was born, and the contemplation of 10 years, all these had made his mystic arts evolved.

As there were too much information in every conversation with Huang Baiyi, Ye Chong had to spend a considerable amount of time to digest it daily. So the progress of glider production became halted – a pleasing sight to Huang Baiyi, although his expression remained unchanged. The approach Huang Baiyi took was tricky, revealing just enough information on how to fight against a Mentalist to pique Ye Chong’s interests and kept him busy.

Soon a complete system of the mystic arts had been built inside Ye Chong’s head, well, only the theoretical part of course, which was more than sufficient for Ye Chong. To him, a little understanding of the mystic arts would allow him to at least not fight a losing battle against the Mentalists, although he did not seem to realize how that “a bit” was literally the entire infantry.

Huang Baiyi believed that Ye Chong would meet the other Mentalists one day and this young man would soon realize the values of these theories as a conflict occurred. Based on his observation these days talking with Ye Chong, certainly Ye Chong was the kind who would go very deep into the field once the value had been identified.

The lectures so far were just preparatory works.

And he looked forward to the future. He was excited, it felt like an interesting game he was playing, as he had planted a seed of the Xi Feng’s mystic arts, an unknown seed that maybe would sprout into something undistinguishable as its forebears but who cares! Xi Feng’s mystic arts remained existed in this world at the very least!

Years back Huang Baiyi had already predicted the fall and the demise of Xi Feng’s mystic arts. He refused to accept it however. It eventually bogged him down like a giant rock on his heart, and now he had felt much more relieved. He had contributed something to the soon-lost mystic arts at probably the last few years of his life.

Regarding those former compatriots who had gone astray, they were no longer his concern.

It took Ye Chong quite some time to craft the glider, but he made it anyway. It was not smooth ride, as Ye Chong had failed probably at least 30 times at certain more complicated parts during the process. He made it, he made a glider from scratch, with only his dagger.

Such perseverance! How I wish he would be using his talent on the mystic arts!

Exclaimed Huang Baiyi in his mind.

Ye Chong went to Huang Baiyi. “We can leave here. This glider could take both of us. The success rate is about 70 to 85%,” briefed Ye Chong.

“Move, you could just leave me here. I don’t want to go,” stated Huang Baiyi calmly.

The reply was uncalled for. It took a moment of silence before Ye Chong could comprehend the situation, “Why?”

Huang Baiyi smiled slowly, “I am old. I don’t feel like moving anymore.”

“Are you sure?” Ye Chong frowned, since that did not sound like a legitimate reasoning.

“Remember the Xi Feng clan I had mentioned you before? I would like to ask something,” Huang Baiyi sat back slowly, “Do you think if it was right for them to leave the space zone in the first place?” A random question from him.

Ye Chong thought for a while. “Yes,” he replied confidently, as he recognized the strength of the Xi Feng clan in any of the galaxy, be it the 5 major galaxies or He Yue. They reached even the current space zone they were in. Anyhow, they were correct. Their decision was right. In Ye Chong’s opinion, Mentalist Pilots were far more resourceful compared to Mentalist. The ancient force would shatter as the technological age stomped.

“I knew it,” muttered Huang Baiyi, his eyes were soulless. It took him a while to recover, “Well, it seems like I was too rigid myself. It was only a matter that they took a different path.”

…

… …

“I have taught you a lot these days.” His speech broke the silence out of the blue, “As part of the exchange, I would like you to do me a favor. Of course the choice lies within yourself.”

Ye Chong pondered for a short while. “State it,” he said.

“Try your best to eliminate the Abductor.” The calm tone was boiling inside, “Well, if you could do it that is, since you are still fighting alone.”

“Why?” That was the second inquiry of confusion from Ye Chong today.

“I might not have the rights to judge if they took the correct path in the past, but I could not tolerate such immorality.”

“I cannot guarantee,” replied Ye Chong frankly. Although he could not perceive the point of Huang Baiyi’s anger in such act by Xi Feng clan, he believed the absolute relationship between Xi Feng clan and the Abductor. He had seen quite a number of young Mentalist Pilots inside the Sanctuary back then, Zhu Ling was one of them. Probably those kids were from the outside, and likely they had forgotten how their parents looked…

But those were not his concern. The whole point was the relationship between Ye Chong and the Abductor. He could nod at Huang Baiyi’s request, but he knew his strength well enough. The promise… sadly would happen at the tiniest probability he could imagine. Well, if he were given the chance to deliver the final blow, he would take it, no doubt.

“Mhm, you don’t have to keep the promise till death.” Huang Baiyi gave a smile and looked certainly relieved.

“I’ll be leaving.” Ye Chong turned away and moved to the peak, where the glider was placed earlier. Every preparation had been done. It was time to go.

“Have a safe journey.” The old man spoke softly, as he sat on the mossy ground, hunched. His brightened eyes set a silent farewell to the shrinking figure.

an Yue took a look at the pack of Fangwolves before him. His heart ran cold as his eyes were overflowed by the rumbling pack. The people stood there, their faces were pale. It was a miracle of their training that their feet could stand still.

Fangwolves were the typical social animal. They traveled in pack, a rampaging pack, in which they raised their furry body that reached the height of a grown man. They would wield threatening strength in their most brutal aggression. It would be a fortune if you encountered them in single or a pair. It would be your doom if they came to you in a pack. They were strategic fighters, in a coherent group, to an extent they would put any merchant group or practitioners to an absolute death.

Han Yue’s lips tightened as his palms were frozen by the grip of the sword. A fine 28 he was, where he was believed to be freed from being the shrinking violet of early adolescence as he would march towards the grand adulthood. He might have dressed plainly, without any unnecessary adornment, but no one would judge him by his look. His hands were coated with cuts and calluses, his eyes were sharper than his sword. Speaking of his sword, that was another marvel to behold, an overlooked one though.

He was a trustworthy worker as he would make his decisions firm, that the master would respect and hand him the mission. He knew a great mission had been shouldered so he was well-prepared, as he carried an army of 300 men who possessed impeccable skills, enough to raid a tiny town on their will.

And there he was, being surprised of the attack. He never expected to be surrounded by pack of Fangwolves with size that reached the horizon ahead. There should be about ten thousands of them, a formidable force, almost destructive, annihilating. Unless a miracle was bestowed or he would never survive.

Without any order from the leader, everyone in the group took their weapons out. The alchemist was producing potions promptly at a hurry behind, which were then passed to the warriors at the frontmost. Mentalists were right behind the practitioners, assisting them to avoid the critical hits using their extrasensory future sight.

Han Yue was feeling fine with the current formation, as he took the leisure to glance at the old lady whose face was glaze-white, whiter than the snowy hair of hers, looking worn out as she sank in her white cloak calmly, with her emerald bracelet as the eye-catcher. A team of men in black guarded her, along with a white clothed girl beside. To be honest, the panicked look of the girl was getting more colorless than her clothing at the moment.

The ten men were the adepts of the experts. Han Yue would assume he had the more diabolical side while being more strategic than the foes, yet he never managed to state the standard of the black-clothed guards.

“My leader, what do we do now?” Asked his assistant, with a fearful look. obviously he was at loss of ideas and was too confused to move.

Han Yue’s eyes rested upon the old lady who was all serene and insensible. He breathed in deeply, as he heard his heart resounding. A boiling rage, “What are you so panicked about? It’s clearly either they die or we die!” His shaking hands fondled the handle of his sword, trying to regain his temperament.

The assistance, the vice leader of the team remained in an awkward silence of embarrassment.

Han Yue went to the front and shouted, “All in your position! Shrink your formation! Prepare for battle! The backup had been sent! Aids are coming! We only need to guard for 10 hours. Remember, only t-e-n hours, as long as we made it, we would be alive, by hook or by crook!” His tone rang affirmatively and it was inspiring to the people. Staying on tight guard for the next 10 hours might be the harshest task in their whole life, but it was not impossible.

Han Yue was looking undisturbed, yet he was sighing inside. The pack of wolves must have aimed them quite sometime ago. Based on his experience dealing with Fangwolves, he recognized the animal-unlike intelligence as they would show up in front of their prey only after they had prepared their unattainable for the aids to break through the siege. Nevertheless, he could not express that statistical pessimism of his, being the leader, the last reliance of hope, that little bit of probability was the fuel to rekindle their souls.

The old lady seemed to be ver impressed. She could think in Han Yue’s shoes, as she had also experienced many.

The gathering Fangwolves were howling in aggression, signing the completion of their formation, as the thrashes waved in with the dances of fangs.

The Fangwolves were fighting with brutal force of nature, as they manically rushed upon the formation of human at its shrinking-most. Fleshes were splashing, blood was smelled – it was nauseating but people were not bothered by the little detail to the atmosphere.

Han Yue picked his sword and struck upon the pouncing Fangwolf. Splash… the warm blood of the cold animal showered upon him. He had no place to run, had no place to hide. His sight was tainted by the angered crimson. He became agitated as he repositioned his sword and gave a quick wipe on his face.

He was a bloody man, not bleeding but bloody, like his fellow comrades.

The formation was shrinking drastically as men collapsed. In the past 30 minutes, he had lost 41 comrades, a painful 1/6 of his current force. His heart ached in a burning rage, his longsword swung violently.

The battle carried on, not ending but intensifying.

…

“Okay.” Ye Chong was performing the final checkup which the main focus would be examining the connective points of all the main components, since the parts were connected using the Emerald Vines. Such plant had a very relaxed structure that offered decent durability. It was a bit of a chore to take the very lining within the plant though. At least it was rewarding. The greenish lining was fairly thin, while having lightweight. It was more than sufficient to wrap the points with 3 linings to keep the parts together.

This was probably the simplest, the most primitive glider Ye Chong had ever imagined himself producing. It took the form of a bird literally, with two curving wings reaching the back. To achieve a better airborne time, Ye Chong had polished the surface of the wings with his dagger, since it was just a glider without engine to produce the required momentum, only with a simple purpose of carrying Ye Chong to the ground safely.

The other side of the cliff was a terrain of grasses, where a broad winding river reached the horizon.

Well the glider was meant for two persons at first. Who knows Huang Baiyi left the party at the eleventh hour. He thought it would be more convenient to Ye Chong but it was quite the contrary, merely because Ye Chong would have to perform his calculation all over again. Fortunately, it was a simple issue to remedy, as long as Ye Chong got somebody or something else to take Huang Baiyi’s place, like the two giant wooden crates he made for example, which contain all the materials and raw production of his alchemy series. The Black Forest offered super rare materials after all… Also his wooden lance had become his assistance again, as it acted as the supporting pole to carry not the sacks but those crates. One would imagine the lance breaking upon hanging but Ye Chong had wrapped it with layers of Aromatic Leaves. In addition, Ye Chong added a sack to carry his food and Water Bamboos on the greenish pole.

Ye Chong was considerably well-prepared for his next journey. He even did a new camouflage. Hell knows if the Wangs could reach the other side of the world. It would be nasty if he was surrounded by a bunch of Wangs upon landing. Lunatic Guan’s encyclopedia had taught him the camouflage formula, in which he pick one randomly, well, since the formula seemed to have the highest rating by the author herself.

Materials were a little hard to find, but producing the potion was not hard. Ye Chong had coated his entire body with the potion, just to make sure he looked natural and not artificially duo-colored at some angle. He must admit the potion was pretty good however. Unlike the inapproachable terminal patient look he used to disguise himself before, he just looked different. Well the potion was considered a superb luxury to the outside world, only a fool like him would pour the entire bottle of gold on his body.

Ye Chong checked thrice, okay, everything seemed fine. He would not want to gamble this, he might be a Jie expert but he would be a goner if something went wrong in the air. Man, how he missed the mechs, the fancy flying crafts he had. Seriously the glider he made felt like something he would scavenge on Trash Planet of the ancient.

He fixed the sack and the crates on the lance.

He reached his out beyond the cliff, feeling the airflow.

Weather: Fine

Airflow: Stable

Wind: Gentle

He inhaled slowly and began sprinting towards the edge. He was accelerating and he sprung into the air at the very end. He spread his body and let the wind carry his weight.

He glided, like a bird!

It was quite a sensation on his adventure, as the incoming wind whispered into his ears. It felt refreshing. But he regained from it quickly, as he began shifting his focus on the steer.

He never had once “piloted” a glider but he was a talented pilot after all, he got the gist of it… since the control of a glider was way more simpler than a mech. A glider was much slower too, thus more time to react. It eventually did not take long for him to grow familiar of the handles.

It seemed like his next journey was indeed happening. The departure was seemingly successful.

And that was when the airflow changed.

The gale slapped upon him. It happened too quick. The glider was shaking and Ye Chong had already forgotten the gorgeous view above.

The glider waved like a fallen leaf.