Arriving on Kenli Star was something that happened thirteen days later.
The M-Gray Hawk landed in a rainforest located right at the border between the eastern and western districts of Kenli Star. This place was uninhabited and completely silent, save for the piercing cries of birds and beasts that echoed through the trees from time to time.
Li Yixing stepped out of the mecha, making sure to bring along a few vials of high-potency nutritional injections, as a single injection could sustain him for half a month’s worth of caloric consumption.
The rainforest paths were extremely muddy, and Li Yixing’s black military boots sank deep into the wet, black soil. Suddenly, a pitch-black python as thick as Li Yixing’s thigh flicked its forked tongue from its coiled position around a tree trunk, and with a swift, violent thrust, it lunged straight at Li Yixing!
Li Yixing’s butterfly knife unfolded with fluid grace, moving with lightning speed and exquisite precision as it pinned the serpent’s triangular head right into the tree with a sharp thud!
The climate across the entire planet of Kenli Star was quite hot, especially in the uninhabited zones near the equator in the eastern and western districts, which were completely dominated by dense rainforests. The trees grew remarkably tall, with the shortest ones standing at two to three hundred meters high, and consequently, the local fauna had also evolved to be colossal in scale.
A light sheen of sweat beaded on Li Yixing’s temples. Beside him, the venomous snake was still not entirely dead, its serpentine body writhing with grotesque vitality. Li Yixing applied a bit more force, driving the butterfly knife even deeper into the wood.
The new wrist-comms unit equipped on his wrist projected a 3D map. After studying it for a moment, Li Yixing realized that he was roughly twenty kilometers away from the nearest human settlement.
It wasn’t too far. Given Li Yixing’s physical stamina, walking thirty kilometers through the rainforest while carrying a thirty-kilogram load would normally take about two hours. Since he was only carrying a few lightweight weapons and nutritional injections this time, he could easily cover twenty kilometers in under an hour.
The black snake beside him had finally stopped moving. Li Yixing pulled out his butterfly knife, and as the pungent stench of beast blood washed over him, a sudden wave of nausea rolled through his stomach, accompanied by a slight dizziness.
He had never experienced anything like this before. Coming out of special operations forces, motion sickness or aversion to blood was completely nonexistent for him.
Li Yixing suppressed his churning stomach, attributing this symptom to the fact that he had gone too long without consecutive spatial jumps or long-distance interstellar travel, which had overtaxed his mental energy and left his physical body somewhat depleted.
After pausing for ten seconds to steady himself, Li Yixing regained his focus. He plucked a leaf to wipe the butterfly knife clean and continued moving toward his target.
Li Yixing’s first objective was Enning City, located deep in the heart of the eastern district. That was also the stronghold of the high-ranking leadership of the eastern district’s space pirates.
It took him seven or eight days. After hiking out of the rainforest, he caught an old, dilapidated flyer and finally arrived at his destination.
The urban construction of Enning City was vastly different from that of Oasis City. Being a remote frontier planet and an administrative no-man’s-land, the buildings here were old and dilapidated, with slums scattered everywhere and dim, flickering lights struggling against the night. Yet, right in the central zone of Enning City, there was an air of extravagant, decadent prosperity. It was a district of dazzling neon lights that never went out, where bars and nightclubs dedicated to hedonism could be found every three steps. One only had to push open a door to be assaulted by the heavy stench of alcohol and the choking cloud of cigarette smoke.
The most famous bar in this area was called Mandara, and its primary shareholder was Wang Shengxiang, the leader of the eastern district’s space pirates.
The bar spanned four floors with a massive circular interior. The hollow central atrium was framed by dazzling colored lights, and the first-floor hall featured a performance stage where all kinds of acts took place.
Meanwhile, the top floor catered exclusively to prominent and influential guests of Enning City, while the remaining two floors housed various private rooms and entertainment facilities.
Of course, the most distinctive feature of Mandara wasn’t its performance stage or its liquor, but rather its themed servers. These servers changed their theme every day to keep things fresh for the patrons.
Today’s theme was maid outfits. A batch of servers, regardless of gender, filed out in maid uniforms to deliver drinks to the various floors.
Li Yixing was among them.
He wore a maid outfit featuring a white base with wine-red trim along the skirt, sleeves, and collar, complete with a small, modest cutout at the chest. On his head rested a fluffy black animal-ear headband, a black choker adorned his neck, and white hollow-out stockings ran up his legs to meet a pair of black boots.
The wine-red maid outfit was tightly fitted at the waist, with a cat-paw pattern embroidered across the chest. The skirt hem barely reached his thighs, and to top it all off, the outfit came with a remarkably long white beast tail secured to his waist by a transparent belt.
With his broad shoulders, narrow waist, and long legs, his physique was exceptionally striking, pushing the visual effect of the maid outfit to its absolute limit.
It was worth noting that even when he was operating undercover on the Capital Star of the Oga Empire, Li Yixing had never worn anything so revealing. Putting on a maid outfit was truly a first in his life, but as a highly disciplined combat operative, his expression remained completely unchanged. Without a single blush or a racing heartbeat, he watched the other servers manipulate their tails and learned to sway his own behind him in sync, walking into the main hall with a convincing and natural gait.
Right now, he was merely a bottom-tier server in this bar and lacked the clearance to reach the top floor, so he had to start from the bottom and gather information step by step.
People were drinking, smoking, and clubbing everywhere. The ear-shattering music pulsed in time with heartbeats, ringing so loudly in Li Yixing’s ears that his head felt somewhat dizzy. As he handed drinks to the bar patrons, he kept his ears open to scavenge any useful pieces of intelligence.
“Sister Meng, what happened to that girl you were chasing after?”
“Sigh, don’t even ask. She’s into guys. Hey, speaking of which, you and your hubby have been married for ten years now, so when are you planning on having kids?”
“We’re not having any. We’ll just get by like this. He wants children, but this lady here doesn’t want to give birth! Sigh, I wonder when Kenli Star will finally upgrade its medical standards and hurry up and introduce assisted reproductive technology.”
“You’re dreaming! On Kenli Star, we’ve got no money and only our lives on the line, as our basic medical standards don’t even reach one-tenth of those in the remote star systems of the Alliance or the Oga Empire. Where on earth are you going to find a proper hospital that can support an assisted reproductive system?”
“That’s true,” a male voice chimed in. “Aside from the district boss’s private medical facility, which has the infrastructure to support assisted reproductive tech, none of the other hospitals, whether legitimate or shady, have the capability to handle assisted reproduction.”
“Still, if you’ve got the money, you can actually pay to have the boss’s private medical facility handle it for you.”
“How much does that cost?”
“A friend of mine went to check it out last time, and it cost this much!”
The man held up four fingers.
“Four hundred thousand Enning coins?”
“Wrong! Four million Enning coins!”
Enning currency was the circulating tender of the eastern district, and four million Enning coins roughly translated to about eight hundred thousand Alliance credits.
The group chuckled self-deprecatingly, thinking that was simply far too expensive.
After what felt like a long time spent wading through mundane gossip and dramatic relationship drama, Li Yixing finally caught a few sentences of actual value.
“The southern district got beaten so badly this time! It’s been ages since we had such a smooth victory!”
“Isn’t that thanks to the eastern boss’s newly appointed deputy? His strength is off the charts, and he introduced a whole slew of sweeping reforms right after taking office, completely revitalizing the eastern armed forces! He even sent the southern forces running with their tails between their legs!”
“Really that good? Who is this guy anyway?”
“No idea, the higher-ups are keeping his identity under tight wraps.”
A few individuals muttered in low voices, putting their heads together.
“Word is he’s not even from our Kenli Star, and he apparently showed up right in the middle of the war between the Alliance and the Oga Empire at the Great Wall Fortress.”
Li Yixing’s long brows arched slightly.
The timing was remarkably subtle.
Up in a top-floor private room, Feng Zhao and Wang Shengxiang were drinking when a fawning subordinate stepped forward, wanting to offer Feng Zhao a light.
Feng Zhao waved a hand, signaling that it wasn’t necessary.
Wang Shengxiang looked at his sworn brother, who had been looking weighed down by heavy thoughts for days now, and gave him a hearty slap on the shoulder.
“What are you thinking about?”
Feng Zhao snapped back to attention. Naturally, he couldn’t tell Wang Shengxiang that he was pondering what on earth had gone wrong with his political marriage partner, so he changed his expression at light-speed and smiled, “Ah, I was just feeling a bit cooped up. I’m going outside to get some fresh air.”
Wang Shengxiang didn’t stop him, waving his hand to indicate he understood.
Feng Zhao stood up, left the private room, and leaned against the railing on the fourth floor, looking down.
To Feng Zhao, this bar was ultimately uninteresting, and he had only come because Wang Shengxiang’s hospitality was too hard to refuse.
Lately, Feng Zhao’s mind had been entirely consumed by the chaotic mess back in the Alliance, compounded by the news reports of Li Yixing’s pregnancy and subsequent death.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling stressed enough to sprout white hairs.
Perhaps he needed to find a way to make a trip back to the Alliance, if only to figure out what was going on with Li Yixing, as it was all simply too absurd and too sudden.
It hit a person entirely off guard.
At the thought of this, Feng Zhao began calculating how to escape from Kenli Star. As he pondered potential courses of action, his peripheral vision casually swept across the floor below.
Just a single glance, and he froze.
Amidst the swirling crowd in the first-floor hall, a tall and remarkably familiar figure was weaving through the throng. His raven-black hair stood out quite clearly under the chaotic, multi-colored strobe lights!
It was truly like seeing an old friend from the past.
Feng Zhao’s pupils constricted sharply, his body reacting before his brain even had time to process it!
He braced both hands against the railing and vaulted right over the edge from the fourth floor!
A sharp wave of panicked screams instantly erupted from the crowd!
Li Yixing turned his head, furrowing his brow slightly as he failed to understand what theatrical nonsense these pleasure-seeking, wildly eccentric pirates were pulling this time.
He smoothly slipped into the crowd, and within a few minutes, he successfully navigated into the emergency evacuation corridor, putting distance between himself and the chaos.
Meanwhile, Feng Zhao’s chest heaved with heavy breaths as he shoved through the crowd, desperately searching for the man he had caught a glimpse of, but failing to capture a single familiar shadow among the sea of people.
It was almost as if that fleeting glimpse was merely an illusion born of Feng Zhao’s overactive thoughts.
Elsewhere, Li Yixing returned to his rented room, sat down at the table, and wearily pressed a hand against his chest.
He had already changed out of the maid outfit into a pair of rough-textured cotton-linen pajamas that looked extremely cheap.
After sitting in rest for nearly ten minutes, a sudden wave of hunger washed over him.
He stood up, pulled open his drawer, and found two vials of high-potency nutritional injections lying inside.
A single high-potency nutritional injection could keep him from needing food for at least half a month. Yet his last injection had been only ten days ago.
His consumption rate since arriving on Kenli Star was genuinely a bit too fast.
Li Yixing didn’t think much of it, assuming he simply hadn’t acclimated to Kenli Star’s environment yet, leading to low physical endurance and excessive resource burn.
He picked up a nutritional injection, pressed it against his arm, and pushed the entire dose into his system.
Once administered, the sensation of hunger quickly faded quite a bit. Li Yixing let out a long breath and stepped forward, preparing to return to bed and rest.
However, he had barely taken two steps when a sudden wave of dizziness hit him, followed by an indescribable surge of nausea climbing up his throat. He threw a hand over his mouth and nose, breaking into a quick jog toward the bathroom!
The moment the door flew open, the veins on the back of Li Yixing’s hands bulged as he braced himself against the edge of the sink, gagging uncontrollably.
Yet nothing came up, as he hadn’t been able to eat anything, and he had only consumed a few glasses of alcohol all evening.
It must have been the alcohol, Li Yixing thought, as expected, he really couldn’t hold his liquor.
The nauseating feeling of dry heaving subsided only after half an hour, leaving Li Yixing’s eyes bloodshot from the strain. Perhaps because his skin was too fair, the fit of dry heaving had left his face, exposed neck, and arms flushed with a faint reddish tint.
Li Yixing drank some warm water, finally forcing the discomfort down. Massaging his temples, he slowly lay down on the bed. After tossing and turning for so long, he could finally get some rest.
Time to sleep.
Li Yixing closed his eyes and told himself.