Chapter 179: Arriving at Black Abyss
On the command deck of Tomahawk, Xia Fei was in deep thought while he smoked a cigarette.
“What do you plan to do with Harris?” asked Phantom.
Xia Fei furrowed his eyebrows, slowly exhaling a ring of smoke. “It’s not easy to come across a top-tier geneticist. Although he’s done plenty of terrible things, I don’t feel like killing him.”
Phantom shook his head. “I know that you like talented people, but this man’s done horrible things in the past. Keeping him alive is just like carrying heavy baggage.”
Xia Fei laughed. “I don’t think I’ve ever been free of trouble. If his death means I wouldn’t encounter any more trouble, I would kill him long ago; you can count on that.”
Phantom pursed his lips. Xia Fei appeared to be saying that another problem on his back was not much because of how many problems he already had.
“Are you saying you’re going to keep him alive?”
Xia Fei nodded. “It does seem to be the case.”
“You’ll be working with a demon here.”
Xia Fei let out a sly smirk. “There’s a demon inside everyone. Plus, can’t I work with a demon? As long as the sacrifices match the benefits, I don’t really mind working with demons.”
“Many may look like angels, but they are demons at heart; Barty was the best example of that. Harris, on the other hand, wears his evil side on his sleeves; It’s evident that he’s a scoundrel who isn’t above using immoral methods to try and achieve his goal. It’s much better to work with someone who is candid about their evil rather than someone who pretends to be a good person,” Xia Fei said plainly.
Phantom stayed silent for a bit. What Xia Fei said did make sense, Harris was a mad scientist. Anyone must be somewhat crazy in order to achieve things that others had never achieved, and only the craziest could be the most successful.
“If you’ve decided on that, what are you thinking about?” asked Phantom.
“Details, ” Xia Fei replied, unfazed.
…
Harris was lying in bed hopelessly. He was ma.s.saging his temples using his fingers, his emotions a mess.
He had always thought that his invention, Amethyst, was a failure. He did not care about having to wander endlessly because he was a wanted man, nor did he care about being ridiculed. In truth, the only thing he was afraid of was failure; he was willing to give up his life if it meant success.
Just as he was approaching hopelessness, Xia Fei appeared.
Someone who had survived after taking Amethyst and even had a fully opened seventh brain region because of it, benefiting a lot from that as a result. How could Harris not be excited?
Even though the rates were plain horrible with one surviving out of thousands, at least this proved that there was hope of succeeding. With enough time, Harris was confident that he could find a way to fully open the seventh brain region— getting a glimpse of this most ancient and mysterious secret.
The problem was that Xia Fei did not have qualms killing him. It was almost funny to think how Xia Fei would not be who he was today without the help of Amethyst, yet he wanted to kill the inventor of Amethyst.
Harris had s.h.i.+vers down his spine thinking back on every one of Xia Fei’s moves and actions. The young man was not kidding at all; he could really kill him at any moment without hesitation.
As the doors opened, Xia Fei slowly walked out from the control deck. He grabbed a chair sitting across from Harris, looking right at him with an authoritative and threatening aura.
“Xia Fei, I’ve made up my mind, I’ll agree to anything as long as you let me live,” quickly said Harr as he sat up straight.
“What do you mean you’ve made up your mind? I’ve never agreed to such things.”
“I can’t die!” said immediately Harris. “At least, not yet. Since you were unharmed after taking Amethyst, this means that Amethyst still has hope of working. I must continue living; I must keep striving to complete it. As long as I manage to create a medicine that can fully open the seventh brain region yet have no side effects, then I’ll be willing to die.”
Xia Fe smiled, completely unfazed. “Is that your reason?”
Harris quickly nodded. “Yes, is that reason not enough? Once every human has their seventh brain region open, we’ll become the strongest sentient lifeform in the universe bar none.”
Harris was quite ambitious, unfortunately Xia Fei did not share the same idea. The reason he did not kill him was that he still had use for him. Quantum Holdings was still at its infancy, and its desire for talent grew day by day. It was impossible to become a truly influential company without talent.
Although he had never mentioned it, Xia Fei felt terrible being judged by Avril’s family. He had already made the decision of expanding his power, and Harris fit his criteria of a talent.
Quantum Holdings was not powerful; hence, he had no way of attracting quality talents to join, and Xia Fei did not like inferior talents.
As Harris was a wanted man in the Alliance, he did not have many choices if he wanted to live. That made this desperate man a good choice. At the very least, Quantum Holdings would have a future in genetic medicine if this man joined his company.
Xia Fei laughed. “Heh. I want congee for breakfast and a poached egg on the side.”
Harris was shocked. “Does that mean you agree to letting me live?”
Xia Fei walked toward the door as he replied, “There’s a catch that you’ll know soon enough.”
…
With the correct flight route, Tomahawk traversed through the No Man’s s.p.a.ce even quicker.
Xia Fei officially entered the Death Trio Star Region seventeen days later.
Just as he reconnected to the interplanetary internet, Avril sent a request for communication. The girl was still worried about Xia Fei’s safety as she bombarded him with questions regarding his well-being. Although it was a bit long-winded, Xia Fei patiently answered each of her questions.
It was a good thing to have a beautiful woman like her thinking about him, after all, and Xia Fei understood that.
Avril’s life returned to normal after the Plumagers were completely removed from the capital ring besides the increase in the number of bodyguards around her. Newman spent a sizable sum just to hire a retired Gold rank Adjudicator as a safety supervisor solely responsible for protecting Avril.
This retired Adjudicator used to be the chief of security forces in the headquarters. This meant that he had plenty of experience under his belt and was quite sophisticated in his methods. With him around, there should be a huge change in Avril’s safety for the better.
Xia Fei did not know it, but Qin Mang actually had a hand in this. The retired Adjudicator took the job all because of Qin Mang. Qin Mang was just like an omnipresent spirit, although he may seem like an inconspicuous curator in an insignificant library, his eyes were actually in every corner of the Alliance.
Now that she was strictly guarded, Avril’s life became ever more boring. Stuck in her room and unable to go anywhere, she began to treasure the time she spent on the beach with Xia Fei more and more, clinging onto her limited memories. The thing she looked forward to the most each day was a chat with Xia Fei. Without her realizing it, Xia Fei had taken a special place in her heart, and he would possibly stay there for the rest of her life.
Xia Fei sighed as he turned off the projected screen.
“What’s wrong? Avril’s doing alright,” asked Phantom.
“I just think that Avril actually isn’t happy; perhaps it really isn’t a good thing to be born in a powerful family like hers,” expressed Xia Fei.
Although Avril’s face was filled with excitement, Xia Fei could feel a loneliness within her. However, there was nothing he could do. Of course, he hoped that Avril could live her own life, but her ident.i.ty meant that she could not go shopping and watch movies like other girls her age.
Phantom remained silent. This was just how it was meant to be, and n.o.body could change it unless Avril rid herself of her ident.i.ty and became a normal girl; but how could she just throw away her ident.i.ty?
After regaining his focus, Xia Fei looked up everything about Harris using the wars.h.i.+p computer. It was not a sign of trust when Xia Fei decided to leave him alive. Xia Fei was also someone with a fanatical side to him, so he knew that the most difficult thing for a crazy person was restraint. Anyone who tried to restrain Xia Fei would receive his strongest objection, yet now, Xia Fei, the madman, was trying to claim another madman, Harris, for his use; this would really take some work.
Harris’s life could be described as brilliant. He was known as a genius since his youth. He entered the Alliance Academy of Sciences as a gene researcher at the age of seventeen and eventually became the leader of a gene research group at twenty-one. At twenty-six, the Alliance established a genetic research inst.i.tute where Harris became the deputy dean. At thirty-five, he became the dean of the said inst.i.tute, the first person in charge, and the chief scientific advisor.
“Interesting. Harris is quite an incredible person. Xia Fei, are you confident in claiming someone like him as your own?” Phantom asked worriedly.
No matter how one looked at it, Harris was an excellent top-tier talent. People like that were the most difficult to keep in control and to subdue.
Xia Fei laughed. “Heh, there are more than one way of subduing someone.
“Zhuge Liang captured Meng Huo seven times in order to subdue him[1], but my method is much easier.”
“What method?” Phantom was puzzled.
Xia Fei did not respond, instead swiping at the projected screen and producing a silver bracelet.
Phantom could not help but laugh when he saw it. “You’re going to give him that?”
Xia Fei nodded. “Yeah, since he’s a madman, I have to give this madman a rule that he can never break.”
…
DLC-113 was a desolate planet. From the s.h.i.+p, it appeared to be completely covered in yellow sand, with the constant sandstorms looking like ma.s.sive yellow snakes, circling around the planet they quickly slithered around.
Tomahawk slowly landed outside the perimeter of a city called West Milton. The city was hectic and impoverished; it did not even have its own port, so Xia Fei had no choice but to park at the sandswept desert outside the city.
As the hatch opened, they were met with strong winds with sand particles that left him unsteady. Xia Fei wrapped his head in a blanket, leaving his two eyes exposed, as he walked toward the rundown city. He was heading toward a place known as Windchime Bar in search of a person who was also known as Windchime.
[1] a reference to Romance of the Three Kingdon, that highlights the characteristic of winning someone over via dint of virtue