Chapter 172: A Plus One
Translator: Kingbao Editor: DarkGem
After a lecture that lasted for three hours and an optical computer that got stuffed full of things, Mu Xuan was finally rea.s.sured. The moment the administrative work was complete, Yao Si was out of the s.p.a.ce station in a flash. She was determined to pa.s.s the coming of age test! She was over being looked upon as a ‘baby’ all for the sake of more intimate acts… cough, for coming of age!
Wasn’t it just a foreign planet? She could treat it as as part of a tour even if she was alone…
“F*ck, what are you guys doing here?” Yao Si glanced ahead at the two that had arrived at the same moment.
“Your Highness! That’s great! We finally managed to catch up.” Bai Yi broke into a radiant smile. “I never expected Your Highness to also be attending the coming of age test, what a coincidence!”
“What do you mean by coincidence? You followed me, didn’t you?”
“This… I didn’t have a choice!” he complained pitifully when his lie was exposed. “Your Highness, you should know that my ability doesn’t have any attack power, so there is no way that I’ll pa.s.s by myself. This is already my third try. I have been single for such a long time, so can’t you take into account the ties we have as former cla.s.smates? Are you really ruthless enough to see me without a cub forever?”
Yao Si finally understood his intentions for mentioning the coming of age test a while back. It seemed that he had been scheming all the while.
“What about him?” She turned toward Li Zheng. She could understand Bai Yi’s reasons, but why did he drag Li Zheng along? When compared to her, he seemed more like a young cub?
Before Bai Yi could explain, Li Zheng chirped in in a loud voice. “Dad, your child is here to see you!”
“Get lost!” Who’s your dad? Haven’t I corrected you enough times before? So why haven’t you learned yet?
“Old Li wanted to see the world, and he would have to come here one day anyway. He just managed to grasp the galactic language, but is yet to learn much of the common knowledge, so I didn’t feel okay leaving him behind,” Bai Yi explained.
The corners of Yao Si’s lips twitched. Isn’t it all your fault? How would he be able to learn common knowledge when wasting his days gaming with you?
“Oh right.” She was suddenly reminded of something. “Has his ability awakened?” He was an early generation bloodling, so his ability should be of a certain standard.
“Nope!” They shook their heads in unison.
Didn’t that mean that Yao Si had two burdens? But it was too late to chase them back, so she just glanced at the dense jungle ahead, contemplating on whether she should find a safe place to pitch a tent. After all, she had to stay here for an entire month.
Bai Yi tapped open the map before her then and asked like a sycophant, “Your Highness, which checkpoint are we heading for first? We’ll listen to your every command!”
“Checkpoint?” Yao Si stilled. What was he talking about? “What’s a checkpoint?”
“Eh? Your Highness, didn’t you read the test manual at the s.p.a.ce portal?” Bai Y froze as well, startled.
The corners of Yao Si’s lips twitched. When she had been at the s.p.a.ce portal, she was busy trying to stop Mu Xuan from stuffing the entire house into her optical computer, so where would she find time to look for some manual!
Bai Yi spared her and tapped onto the map in explanation. “The main aim of the coming of age test is to a.s.sess a young bloodling’s individual ability. Even though the Ability Planet can be dangerous, it isn’t entirely without safe zones. In order to prevent bloodlings from viewing the test lightly, there are many high level checkpoints scattered around the planet. In order to pa.s.s, a bloodling has to reach ten checkpoints within a month.”
So that was what they had to do! Yao Si had been prepared to just camp for a whole month without doing anything.
“Where’s the nearest checkpoint?”
“I’ll check!” Bai Yi zoomed in the map and stared at it for a short while before pointing to a red dot. “The checkpoints are rather dispersed, but there are two points near us. The first is no.23 in the south and the other is no.77 in the north. They are situated in the opposite directions.”
Yao Si inched toward the map, then zoomed out for the full view of the planet before pointing decidedly on the checkpoint to the south, “This one! There are more checkpoints surrounding it, so there’ll be ten of them if we move in a circular route.”
“But…” Bai Yi frowned, looking troubled. “There are indeed more checkpoints in the south, but… it’ll be a rough terrain. It’ll take at least ten days for a wind ability to fly over, and if we were to walk…”
“Don’t worry, I have this!” Yao Si pulled out three flying devices the size of circular plates out of her optical computer.
“Fly-flying device!” Bai Yi’s eyes went wide in shock. “Y-your Highness, you actually brought a flying device!” How could that be? Weren’t they strictly prohibited from bringing along any galactic equipment? Wasn’t this cheating? Wasn’t it outright cheating?!
“What’s wrong? Isn’t it enough?” Yao Si asked in confusion.
“…” Bai Yi and Li Zheng.
“Your Highness, wh-when you entered, wasn’t there any staff around in the s.p.a.ce station?” When they had entered, everything, even their boxers had been removed. They could only bring the map in their optical computer in order to ensure a fair compet.i.tion.
“I saw them!” Yao Si nodded. “Mmh, they were rather friendly and nice bloodlings.”
“F-f-friendly?!” Were those really the same people as those who had seized even their boxers? “Isn’t your baggage…” too much?
“Oh, I didn’t intend to bring anything, but Mu Xuan stuffed it all in.” If possible, he would have stuffed a s.h.i.+p in as well.
“His Majes—” Fine! If Bai Yi was part of the staff, he wouldn’t dare to utter a word as well.
“What’s wrong, we can’t use the flying devices? Why don’t we just use a machine instead?! Do you want a defensive one, an aggressive one, or one for comfort?” She clicked three machine s.p.a.ce b.u.t.tons.
“…” Bai Yi.
“…” Li Zheng.
After half a minute…
“Your Highness!”
“Mmh?”
“What else did you bring? Could you say it all at once?”
“Mmh, there’s too much, so it’s a little hard for me to consolidate everything, but let me put it this way… I even brought condiments along. Do you want some?”
“…”
Bai Yi wondered if she should be glad to be acquainted. Yao Si seemed like the exploitable sort.
In contrast, Li Zheng wasn’t the least bit restrained. He took a step forward and blurted the first thing that came to his mind.
“Dad, do you have boxers with you?”
“…” Yao Si.
“…” Bai Yi.
–
In the end, Yao Si went with the flying devices. It was only after she started the journey that she realized the enormity of the planet. It took an entire afternoon of flying for them to leave the forest, and according to the map, they had only covered a tenth of the distance.
They were forced to take a break then and continue the next day. It was at that time that she understood the dangers of the planet. Throughout their journey, they witnessed almost all the different natural disaster in existence—earthquakes, volcano eruptions, tornadoes. All of them happened one after another, without any room for a breather.
A distance that could be covered in about five days took them more than ten days.
The planet had a fickle temperament that seemed to be changing by the minute, and there was barely a safe spot on which for them to land. If they hadn’t been flying, it was likely they would have long been buried by sudden surges of water or cracks in the ground.
The erratic environment sent energy bursting through Yao Si, wind, rain, lighting, electricity, gold, wood, water, and fire coming all at once. Her ability was reliable for once, activating any time they came face to face with danger.
They managed to stay safe through the tricky situations, and on the twelfth day, they finally reached the first checkpoint.
It… left Yao Si stunned!