Chapter 121: Starlink Corporation’s First Fleet
Vampire followed along a plotted flightpath as it headed toward the Pan-Human Alliance, the autopilot warping a thousand lightyears away every ten minutes.
The pirates in the Wild Star Region would be none the wiser, for such small jumps were the best at avoiding detection, reducing the chances of them running into potential trouble.
As such, a flight, which would have taken a day, ended up extending to nine days.
Xia Fei sat cross-legged on his bed as he stared at that purple Heart of Spirit.
It was a piece of purple rock that was different from the blue Heart of Spirit he had seen before. The blue one was warm and smooth to the touch, like stroking quality jadeite that faintly gave off this air of peace and tranquility.
As for this purple rock, it looked filled with volatile energy. It was not just coa.r.s.e to the touch but also brought a strong chilling numbness to the body of anyone holding it, creating a sense of uneasiness in Xia Fei right now.
“Best if I inspect it at another time.” Xia Fei furrowed his brows as he kept that purple Heart of Spirit into his spatial ring. That mysterious yet violent energy the object was releasing made him feel troubled and breathless; it even exerted pressure on him.
Proceeding to lie on the bed as he channeled his Breath Control technique, it took Xia Fei a dozen or so minutes before he could expel that sense of cold oppression in him. Only then did he feel his entire body finally relaxing.
“Phantom, something is really strange about that purple Heart of Spirit. Why is it that the purple Heart of Spirit appeared to be trying to draw my attention, unknowingly causing me to devote all my mental energy to it, but when I did as it instructed me, my skin ended up feeling uncomfortable, even to the point of making me feel somewhat irascible? I suspect that being in proximity with it can twist my personality.” Xia Fei knitted his brows as he mused.
Phantom was quiet for some time before he spoke. “No way. Why couldn’t I feel all that? Could it be a man-made phenomenon? I remember my master once telling me that it took him a very long time before he managed to unravel the true depths of the purple Heart of Spirit. You’ve only come into contact with it for a short time, so how could you so quickly sense its restlessness and ferocity?”
Xia Fei shook his head. “How would I know? It’s no good; best if I reduce my contact with this thing from here on. It’s like a black hole trying to draw me, and it takes all my willpower to resist its allure.”
“I feel like you can try and accept its guidance, instead. This is very much something worth studying. Since you want to use the purple Heart of Spirit to rapidly advance your cultivation, you’ll have to increase your knowledge of it,” Phantom very seriously proposed.
Xia Fei understood full well that Phantom was adopting a purely objective stance to elaborate on this problem. Though Phantom was a failure of an a.s.sa.s.sin, after Xia Fei got to know him better due to them spending so much time together, he knew now that Phantom always had a serious att.i.tude when it came to researching stuff.
“No.” Xia Fei resolutely rejected Phantom’s suggestion. “While I can still resist it with sheer willpower, I most definitely won’t attempt to do something like that. I hate it when anyone interferes with my thoughts; this applies to humans, and it’s even more empirical when it comes to a piece of rock. No matter what sort of mystery it contains, if I lack the confidence of controlling it, then I prefer leaving it as a secret.”
Phantom was visibly disappointed. “It’s not like I’m asking you to risk your life for this; would you not even consider trying it out, just a little?”
Lighting a cigarette, Xia Fei sat at the bedside and smoked. “Best to wait till I’m able to control it fully.”
That was when Sarah opened the door to Xia Fei’s cabin. She poked her head in and regarded Xia Fei with a smile. “It’s time for food; I’ve made fried sauce noodles according to your liking.”
Xia Fei was quite surprised to hear the term ‘fried sauce noodles’. He sat ramrod straight on the bed for the longest time. It had been quite a while since Xia Fei had himself a bowl of fried sauce noodles, so his interest was immediately piqued. Whether it would fit his taste or not did not truly matter; after having traveled across the stars and tasted all sorts of delicacies, he still found the fried sauce noodles to be the most compatible with his taste buds.
The cabin had been fitted with plenty of equipment, so the originally rather large living s.p.a.ce ended up becoming very cramped.
Xia Fei bounded off from the bed and over an anti-disruptor. “Let’s go and have a taste of the fried sauce noodles you’ve made.”
The two made their way through the clutter and arrived at the s.h.i.+p’s mess, and Xia Fei’s head was already beginning to ache. Previously, in order to save time, Xia Fei had left the various equipment lying around everywhere, and now that he had a look, he realized how his approach was not methodological, for it reduced the habitability of the wars.h.i.+p.
It was fine for the nimble Xia Fei, but poor Allen in his seventies had to climb up and down just to eat a meal, so he ended up taking a long time getting through everything with his aging limbs.
A traction control module was converted into a dining table. In order to set this particular equipment up, the original mahogany dining table had been removed and disposed of; thus, their only option now was to have their meal on top of the module.
They covered this makes.h.i.+ft table with one set of blue and white checkered tablecloth, and on it was a bowl of white and fine noodles; next to it was the brown fried sauce, looking very inviting.
Sarah filled a bowl with noodles, then poured a generous serving of the fried sauce into it. Xia Fei took a whiff of it and felt that something was off about it.
“Sarah, what sauce is this? It smells weird.” Xia Fei knitted his eyebrows.
Sarah retrieved several jars from inside the fridge and placed them on the table. “I used these. The word ‘sauce’ is written on them, so I put a bit of each inside.”
Xia Fei had no idea whether he should laugh or cry. There were sauces of every kind put in the noodles—hawthorn, strawberry, salad dressing, peanut, tomato—yet the most essential, the one for sweetening it, was not.
“Yes, the taste is truly not bad; your hometown truly has a way with food.” Old Allen really enjoyed what he tasted, full of praise toward this very creative fried sauce noodles.
Xia Fei had no choice. Thankfully, he was not particular with his food and was fine as long as he could eat his fill.
After filling himself with food, Xia Fei lit a cigarette and took a few drags of it. “I have some money on me. If you run into any trouble after entering the Pan-Human Alliance, you can purchase some tickets to get on a flight back to Earth. Find a man called Podoski and he will help you two settle everything.”
After saying that, Xia Fei pulled out a stack of notes from his spatial ring and handed it to Allen. The citizens of the Pan-Human Alliance often used electronic money, but they had also printed some paper money for the less advanced planets for the sake of convenience. These notes were worth one million star coins, enough for their trip to Earth.
“Will anything happen to us in the Pan-Human Alliance?” asked Allen, and Sarah nervously looked at Xia Fei for an answer as well.
Xia Fei smiled. “I don’t think so. I was put on a wanted list when I first got out due to a misunderstanding, so I may have some explaining to do at the military when I re-enter the Alliance.”
Xia Fei was not very worried about the bounty placed on his head. They had only given that emergency order for his capture because they were afraid that the insectoid spies would escape from him then, but since that the s.h.i.+p had been blocked within the Alliance territory, and given how he was a member of the Adjudicator Union, he did not think that this would be too big a problem.
Besides, Lunar Eclipse was already lost; as long as he stuck to the reason that it was his communications system acting up, the military would have no way of disproving his claim, so they naturally would be helpless to act against him.
Xia Fei enjoyed making preparations beforehand; having considered that the military’s interrogation might take some time and since he had some money on him, he reckoned that it was better for Allen and Sarah to have it. The moment he decided to help these two escape from the Wild Star Region, he resolved to help them to the end, or else it would have been better to have just left them back there.
“So you’re a fugitive,” very casually remarked Sarah. In the Wild Star Region, a rock casual tossed could end up hitting a fugitive; hence, this girl was hardly bothered by Xia Fei being one.
All of a sudden, his wars.h.i.+p’s communicator pinged. Xia Fei made his way to the command deck and saw that the First Fleet of Starlink Corporation was hailing them. According to the coordinates, this fleet was over three thousand lightyears away from Vampire.
Xia Fei furrowed his brows. Vampire had been maintaining radio silence this entire time, so this fleet must have been scanning the area to get a hit, sending a call his way.
Starlink Corporation was a large company within the Pan-Human Alliance. The interplanetary internet, which spanned across the entire human territory, was run by this corporation, and in fact, it was considered as one of the top ten powers within the Alliance.
There were many large corporations and conglomerates that had their own fleets in the Alliance, and the only difference between these fleets and the governing body of the human government was their inability to acquire a capital s.h.i.+p.
The Alliance was especially strict when it came to their control of capital s.h.i.+ps. Aside from themselves and a few high-tier sovereign territories, the capital s.h.i.+p was not something any individual or civilian organization could purchase.
The only exceptions were the two major warrior organizations: the Adjudicator Union and the Monastic Order. Due to the special place they held in the Alliance, they were approved to own capital s.h.i.+ps.
Xia Fei checked this fleet’s banner. He saw that it indeed belonged to Starlink Corporation and was not an ambush the pirates had set up in an attempt to pull the wool over his eyes.
Still, why would a fleet of a giant corporation make its way into the dangerous Wild Star Region? Xia Fei pondered over this and decided to open the communication channel to accept the other’s hailing while keeping his warp engine primed for a jump at any time.
A man in his twenties appeared on the screen in front of Xia Fei.
This person looked extraordinarily n.o.ble, possessing a high nose bridge with a piercing gaze. His locks of golden hair were naturally hanging loosely, covering the left half of his face. He had very pale skin which seemed rather flawless. For a man, the elegance his looks gave off was a bit much.
“h.e.l.lo, I’m the commander of Starlink Corporation’s first fleet, Jansen.” The blond man spoke with his back rigid, his voice sounding quite dignified.
Xia Fei smiled. “Hi, I’m Xia Fei. May I ask what is the matter?”
“Xia Fei. You’re Xia Fei.” Jansen’s two eyes suddenly shone as he pulled out an image from another screen and carefully examined it for some time. Turning his head back to look at the Xia Fei on his communicator screen, his face betrayed mild excitement.
“You’re an Earthling?”
“That’s right.”
“A cadet of the Adjudicator Union from the Endaro branch?”
“Indeed.”
“Eighteen years of age, unmarried?”
Xia Fei was completely baffled. Could this person be checking his account?
“That is correct.” Xia Fei wrinkled his forehead as he gave this reply.
“I don’t see an uncanny resemblance… You don’t seem to be as handsome as the one in the picture, ” Jansen muttered under his breath.
He said that in a soft voice, but Xia Fei still caught every word of his. The latter was rendered speechless, and he could not help but suspect this person’s motives.
“Well, since you’re Xia Fei, then my mission here is done, too. Just stay where you are right now; my fleet will warp to your coordinates in seventeen minutes forty-six seconds.” Jansen sighed.