Xavier sat in the dark, cramped box-shaped space. Having been accustomed to sleeping in a coffin, he didn’t feel much discomfort at all.
Only his fingers persistently tapped the gemstone on his chest until that faint purple glow lit up once more, and His Highness the Prince complained with deep grievance.
“Coward! You don’t make a sound when there’s danger, why didn’t you know to give me a warning?”
“…You idiot.”
A soft, faint voice finally echoed truly in Xavier’s ear. Slowly, the radiance emitted by the gemstone condensed into a soul body roughly the same size as Xavier.
With fair skin, black eyes, and a head of deep purple long curly hair, it was none other than the immortal Lich Celine.
“Who told you to take such a long, lazy nap.”
In her soul state, Celine floated around Xavier once before replying with a blank, accusatory expression.
Celine was not only an immortal lich who used blessing spells better than dark spells, but her appearance also differed greatly from the public’s image of dark creatures.
With round eyes and a hint of baby fat, when she wasn’t speaking, she had a completely cold-faced cute appearance.
Stared at by his friend with such eyes, Xavier’s arrogance unconsciously diminished by three parts.
Fiddling with the soft silver hair beside his cheek, he spoke somewhat uncomfortably, “So what time is it now? Just now, I didn’t seem to see any living creatures at all.”
In her soul state, the tiny lich had almost the flames of resentment burning behind her. Always meticulous, she recalled the experiences over these years and couldn’t help but gnash her teeth.
“You slept for a full three thousand years!
“Earth has been bombed by nuclear weapons three whole times, and you didn’t wake up even once.
“The nuclear attacks at that time wiped out the vast majority of magical creatures, and the surviving humans abandoned Earth, heading into outer space to expand their territory and civilization.”
Xavier frowned, his pale, pretty face full of confusion, “…What do you mean?”
Celine said gloomily, “It means there is no magical power on this planet right now, and neither you nor I can acquire external magical power here. That’s why I haven’t been able to condense a new body, and can only temporarily stay on this magic stone in a soul state.”
This purple-blue sapphire, upon which she had cast a blessing spell, condensed a portion of her primordial power and could be used by her to occasionally share information with the Lich clan scattered across various parts of the star system.
However, as time flowed on, Celine, who was already heavily injured and unhealed, had grown too weak to maintain her original state, and had long been unable to open the Lich clan’s “Bloodline Link.”
“If you hadn’t woken up in time, I’m afraid I wouldn’t even be able to continue possessing this magic stone.”
Xavier’s blood tribe talent was in the direction of spiritual power, named “Eternal Night Domain.” At the height of his power, his spiritual force field could cover the entire Florence he once ruled.
Before the Middle Ages, he had used “Will Submersion” to plunge an entire Holy See army into terrifying hallucinations, ultimately causing them to rout and flee in all directions, which led to the later Neutral Zone and the corresponding “Non-Aggression Treaty Between Dark Creatures and the Holy See.”
However, his “Eternal Night Domain” was not entirely an offensive talent.
On the contrary, when combat consciousness was not triggered, his powerful spiritual force could instead invisibly resonate with people, soothing their spiritual domains, possessing a natural attraction to magical creatures, and having a significant boosting effect on organisms that excel in spiritual power—the immortal lich barely being one of them.
This could also be considered a branch evolutionary direction of blood tribe hunting skills.
Xavier extended his spiritual tentacles, carefully reaching out to touch Celine.
Soothed, Celine’s expression finally looked better, and she stopped her anxious, unconscious pacing, sitting down in front of Xavier.
The two tiny, doll-like dark creatures stared at each other.
“As you say… Without external magic power, wouldn’t I have to stay in this weak state all the time, with no way to restore my original form?”
“Unless you drink blood.
“Blood allows the blood tribe to recover their power; even if magic wanes, this will not be stripped away.
“Speaking of which, has the curse on you been lifted?”
Xavier pressed his lips together and didn’t speak.
During that protracted holy war, he was entangled by Augustus deep into the primeval forest. The “Sovereignty of God,” renowned for its bright and great nature, did not hesitate to expose the secret of also being a dark creature in order to cast the blood-thirst curse upon him.
The only way to lift the curse was to bow down to Augustus and drink the blood he willingly offered.
Xavier naturally could not agree. The unconvinced Prince therefore endured the nausea and drank the most favored blood of a virgin, but not only did it become so foul-smelling that it was hard to swallow, it also subjected him to continuous blood-burning agony like a low-level blood tribe member.
The always proud Xavier still harbored lingering resentment to this day.
He was no longer willing to try drinking blood, and even discarded a portion of the blood tribe’s innate powerful olfactory system, just so he wouldn’t smell that ubiquitous bloody stench.
That was why he had slept for so long.
Seeing the ugly expression on Xavier’s face, Celine understood and changed the subject.
“So we can only rely on external magic power, but I don’t know specifically where it is. Back when I could still link with my kin, a lich told me that human territory is very vast nowadays, occupying many star systems, ruled by an Empire, with various system lords governing their respective jurisdictions. Ah, and the Holy See…”
Hearing this, Xavier couldn’t sit still and sprang up instantly, his snow-white fangs faintly visible at the edge of his rose-red upper lip.
“Magical creatures are almost all dead, and the Holy See is still around? By what right do these hypocritical fellows?”
“It seems to be that whole ‘divine right of kings’ routine.”
Celine pulled at his sleeping robe, signaling him to calm down, “Magical creatures aren’t completely extinct either, it’s just that their situation in this era is very tough. The Holy See stands alone at the top, its influence penetrating major star systems, and it retains the practice of capturing magical creatures.
“Anyway, not every planet contains a rich magical field like our former homeland did. Relying on the two of us alone, we have no way to find new external magic power. This is also why I stopped you earlier and wanted you to go with that group of people.”
The two of them—one with short arms and legs, let alone crossing star systems, it took Xavier a very long time just to crawl out of that ruins pit.
Speaking of this, Xavier couldn’t help complaining: “Can’t that messy-haired one be dealt with? He bombed my coffin and dared to offend me.”
“No. Besides, he didn’t bomb it.”
Celine learned the Interstellar Common Language through the “Bloodline Link,” and naturally knew that the one who bombed the waste planet was the “Boss” in Gu Shen’s words, so she briefly explained it to Xavier.
Xavier thought thoughtfully, was it those gray-blue eyes?
Daring to bomb him?
Hmph, once he recovered his strength, he would definitely bomb them right back!
He wanted to say something more, but the box began to shake, and a sound came from the edge of the lid, as if someone was trying to open it.
Seeing this, Celine immediately drifted toward the magic stone. Before her last trace of soul hid away, she quickly emphasized.
“The instruments can’t detect any abnormalities in your body. Pay attention, keep a low profile and don’t cause trouble, let’s leave first.”
Just as the words fell, the box lid was opened, and cold light shone in. The line of blood in the center of the Prince’s rose-thin gold iris sharply contracted and quickly melted back into thin gold.
Xavier was placed along with the box onto the table. He adjusted his perspective, observing the unfamiliar space outside the box.
This was a cabin wrapped in metal. On the left was a massive console, where data streams that Xavier couldn’t understand jumped across the screen.
The bluish light reflected on the messy-haired youth who had offended him. The other party wore a mournful face as he cautiously lifted Xavier out of the tool box, tied a translator around his waist, and tapped it twice.
“This should be able to communicate now, right?”
Gu Shen muttered, cautiously glancing to the side.
Thanks to this unknown device, Xavier finally understood the language of these alien humans, making him feel more confident in his heart. He also followed Gu Shen’s gaze to look at the right side of the cabin.
There was an entire wall of a panoramic screen.
The screen displayed the real-time scenery outside the spaceship, which was precisely the scarred surface of the desolate planet.
They hadn’t left Earth yet?
Xavier looked somewhat confused at the two people sitting and standing in front of the screen.
The tall, standing female warrior hadn’t lost her vigilance due to returning to familiar turf, still guarding the side of her recognized monarch like a loyal lone wolf warrior.
As for the man called “Boss,” he sat with his legs crossed, resting on the edge of the console, fiddling with the instrument on his wrist, too lazy to even spare a glance.
The soundproofing of the tool box was very good; Xavier didn’t know what had just happened, but it looked like the messy-haired youth was being reprimanded.
“Boss, I didn’t deliberately bring him up, but I guarantee he’s definitely extraordinary! According to the Imperial Intelligent Robot Law, to reduce ethical risks, the external appearance of intelligent robots, including civil and military purposes, cannot have more than 70% humanoid appearance.
“But he’s completely anthropomorphic, this is definitely a product leaked through illegal channels. Well… just let me take it and research it.”
Gu Shen looked crestfallen, feeling so guilty when he spoke that he didn’t even dare lift his eyes.
Oh, so it was because of him?
Xavier grew a bit interested. Taking advantage of Gu Shen not paying attention, he slowly walked along the console that formed a circle inside the cabin toward the other direction.
Halfway there, Grisha discovered Xavier’s little move. Before she could react, the Prince preemptively flashed his fangs.
Although showing two even more miniature little fangs on a pale, pretty face didn’t have the deterrent effect the Prince imagined, regardless, Grisha was rarely stunned for a moment, then shifted her gaze and dodged to the side.
At any rate, she didn’t stop him, nor did she speak out to expose him.
Xavier was satisfied and continued walking forward.
On the other side, Gu Shen was begging almost to the point of kneeling before Boss Kane. Facing an intelligent body he had never encountered and couldn’t analyze, how could he, as the chief engineer of the Blood Blade Star Pirate Group, not be tempted!
Only, Kane did not relent.
After bombarding several waste planets continuously, his mental disorder was not alleviated.
A storm was still sweeping through his consciousness sea.
The rising, turbulent waves flooded everything, carrying countless extremely fine needles, piercing deep into the sea of consciousness.
It was a lingering torment, making him swing between the extremes of rationality and the desire for destruction.
If Gu Shen weren’t loyal and useful, Kane would have directly packed up this clueless engineer along with the so-called little doll in his mouth and thrown them out together, letting him continue his cherished research on that barren planet.
Kane opened the monitoring system on his personal terminal, deciding to use his continuously dropping NSI value to warn Gu Shen to choose to shut up.
A miniature projection appeared above the terminal, and the NSI value indeed plummeted all the way just as Kane felt, the light and shadow quickly jumping past the orange warning line and instantly transforming into red, representing extreme danger.
Kane felt a sense of boredom and planned to turn off this basically useless monitoring system.
But before his hand touched the terminal, very quickly, as if flashing past, the red light disappeared and turned into a deep orange that required alertness.
Kane’s brow twitched, and his gaze slowly shifted from his personal terminal to his lower leg.
He finally looked properly at the “uncalled-for little doll” he had mentioned.
A palm-sized little person jumped onto his lower leg. His skin was pale, his soft silver hair slightly curly, like condensed moonlight, hanging obediently beside his face.
He was barefoot, wearing only a burgundy silk sleeping robe with exquisite tailoring and dark embroidery, wearing a pretty gemstone necklace around his chest, dressed not like a mass-produced intelligent body, but rather like a little prince who had just awakened from a deep sleep.
Most eye-catching were those eyes.
Rose-thin-gold.
Like the first ray of morning sunlight shining on some ancient mineral, emitting an extremely faint, clear, light gold.
At this moment, those eyes were slightly squinted, sweeping one by one over the three unfathomable figures, and finally locking onto those gray-blue eyes.
The dark short hair was shaved very short, revealing the sharp contours of the side of his face. The brow ridges were towering, and the browline pressed down slightly, making those gray-blue eyes look as if they were forever looking down on something.
—A very arrogant appearance.
Yet just moments ago, that gaze wavered; Xavier saw the tremor beneath the gray-blue ice sea.
It seemed his guess was right.
Xavier felt proud in his heart, meeting Kane’s beast-like gaze that locked onto him all over, and further exerted spiritual resonance.
As the little doll walked over leisurely, all the muscles in Kane’s body involuntarily tightened.
The other’s bare feet stepped right on his leg. Clearly such a light little thing, even separated by a layer of combat pants, caused almost half of his body to experience a fine, tingling itch.
Two top predators approached each other.
And the NSI value projection above the terminal gradually transitioned from the warning orange, to the yellow requiring attention, and finally to the green below the safe value.
Kane slowly sat up straight.
The silver-haired, golden-eyed little thing smiled at him.
Like a miracle, the mental sea disorder that had plagued Kane for so long miraculously and temporarily dissipated.
—The storm had stopped.