Xavier suddenly raised his eyes, his pale golden pupils trembling slightly. The climbing body temperature between his intertwined palms pointed to a certain fact—
“It’s him again! Haunting like a ghost!”
Celine’s calm voice came: “You’re too nervous, Xavier. Relax. The concentration of pheromones on him is already very low; don’t be restricted by your own inherent thinking.”
Xavier slightly reined in his emotions and turned around composedly.
“I’m not hiding.” His lip corners were flat, and his tone carried a bit of innate pride and haughtiness, “This Prince simply couldn’t be bothered to see you.”
“Too bothered to see me, yet you have the leisure to look at the scenery.”
Cain gave a low chuckle, casually grabbed a chair, and sat down unceremoniously beside the porthole. His gaze swept carelessly over Gu Shen, and with just a single look, the other party understood completely.
“Uhm, I’m going to the cockpit side to check on the situation. Hey, the trajectory data was updated just two days ago, and I don’t know if they can figure it out…”
Gu Shen muttered under his breath, without pausing his feet for even half a second, stepping quickly out of the room and deliberately leaving the entire observation room to the two of them.
The moment he stepped out the door, he even secretly looked back and gave the boss a somewhat smug look, practically glowing with pride at his own cleverness and tact.
Cain: …
This scene fell entirely into Xavier’s eyes. His gaze shifted slightly as he looked at the person opposite him.
“You arranged this?”
Cain said in a low voice, “If I said no, would you believe it?”
“If it were you, would you believe it?” Xavier casually tossed the question back, the outer corners of his eyes lifting slightly as he turned his face to look at him sideways, “Such a suspicious pirate lord surely wouldn’t easily trust someone else’s unilateral words.”
“How would you know without trying?”
Cain’s gaze was heavy and dark as he locked onto Xavier, his sight slowly tracing over his delicate brows and eyes, falling from the slightly upturned outer eye corners to the pressed lip line. His gaze was deep and carried an undisguised desire for exploration.
Just as Xavier was about to open his mouth to retort, a sharp warning alert abruptly pierced the quietness of the room.
The next second, the entire observation room violently jolted.
There was nothing to brace against on the observation platform, and Xavier’s body swayed. Cain’s reaction was almost instinctive; his long arm reached out immediately, steadily supporting and catching him.
The man’s palm was wide and powerful, the warmth of his hand transmitting clearly and carrying his unique, highly present heat.
A familiar aura enveloped him, practically gathering the little Prince into the square inch of his palms.
Xavier raised his eyes in a daze, catching in the aftershocks of the collision a pair of gray-blue, calm seas, within which his own figure was condensed.
The surrounding jolts seemed to fade away along with it, and the air grew stagnant and quiet.
The two stared at each other quietly like this, neither moving their gaze away first.
Cain’s torso slowly leaned forward, the distance narrowing silently, their breaths on the verge of intertwining.
[Collision warning cleared——]
No. 1’s cold, mechanical alert abruptly shattered the stillness. Cain raised his hand and decisively turned off the status alert, but this abrupt movement had already pulled back Xavier’s drifting consciousness.
His throat trembled slightly, carrying a trace of imperceptible tension.
“…Let go of me.”
Cain’s gaze shifted slightly, and under Xavier’s silent stare, he slowly loosened his fingers, pulling his arm back inch by inch.
“Really planning to ignore me forever? The transaction we initially settled on, are you going to nullify it as well?” Cain’s voice lowered, the tail end wrapped in a trace of imperceptible congestion, “You were the one who actively requested it, saying you’d help me suppress my mental sea disorder symptoms.”
Xavier closed his eyes and massaged his brow, slender fingers blocking his trembling eyelashes. “Gu Shen said your mental sea has already stabilized and the symptoms have basically subsided.”
Seeing his straightforward and distant attitude, Cain’s jawline suddenly tightened, the tip of his tongue resting against his back molars. “You believe whatever he says?”
“Since that’s the case, when the need arises—”
Cain stood up, his tall, straight torso leaning forward by half a step, and the twilight-like shadow instantly blanketed Xavier’s surroundings, the pressure washing over him.
Looking down from above, his gaze fixed steadily onto Xavier’s pale and cold profile, word by word he stated: “I will come to you in person for help.”
As the words fell, the man’s fingertips lightly tapped on the control panel of the terminal. The system warning sound, dormant for a long time, resumed, and fine electronic buzzing dispersed.
He didn’t linger any further, turned and stepped away, directly leaving the observation room.
The room remained silent for a long time, until the Blood Blade successfully and safely traversed the meteor-strewn belt at the edge of the GX star system, and the warning system issued a prompt that safe status was restored. Only then did Xavier gently let out a breath.
[Celine, this guy’s pheromones are truly terrifying!]
Celine: …
It’s not because of pheromones at all, okay!
Celine split off a bit of soul body power, but seeing Xavier’s drifting gaze and absent-minded expression, she didn’t want to say anything more to hit him further.
[Mhm… Perhaps. Humans are extremely cunning creatures; I’m afraid Cain has already discovered your weakness.]
Xavier narrowed his pale golden eyes slightly, and after thinking it over, he nodded as if it were a serious matter. [What you’re saying makes sense. Otherwise, why would he take advantage of every opportunity to approach me? It seems he’s testing my reaction… Humans!]
Celine: […] Don’t go into a deep sleep at every turn in the future.]
Having slept for three thousand years, he really has gone a bit dull.
Xavier didn’t doubt it, thinking instead that his friend was worried about an uncertain future, and solemnly assured her:
“Rest assured, I will first find a sufficient amount of magic stones for you before considering other matters.”
Celine: [Alright… Thank you.]
It was brushed off after all; Celine secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Xavier had only chatted simply with Celine for a few moments when a sneaky figure with quite eye-catching brown curly hair appeared at the door.
His eyes narrowed slightly, and he exposed him mercilessly, “Come in.”
Gu Shen rubbed his nose and poked his head out to look around first. “The boss left?”
“He left long ago. As for you—” Xavier stared at him with a half-smile, “Did you have fun playing in the control room next door? Crashing into things must have been a blast. Weren’t you worried something would go wrong?”
“How could that be? I specifically picked…”
Before Gu Shen could finish his sentence, he realized his mistake and immediately shut his mouth under Xavier’s suddenly sharpening gaze, frantically racking his brain for an explanation.
“No, no, no, I mean, you know, cough, updating the trajectory database inevitably involves these minor collisions, which helps avoid major accidents.”
Seeing him scared into stuttering, Xavier achieved his goal and withdrew his gaze with satisfaction. “Don’t explain. Come over here. Tell me, after passing through the debris belt, where are we heading?”
The Prince’s gaze fell outside the porthole, onto the increasingly close GX star system and the base camp of the Blood Blade he had heard about multiple times both openly and secretly—
Xiguang Star.
Gu Shen followed his line of sight to look at the familiar destination, opened his mouth, but didn’t make a sound for a moment.
Xavier raised an eyebrow. “Afraid to tell me?”
“Not really.” Gu Shen shook his head.
Over the years, the Blood Blade Star Pirate Group had made quite a name for itself outside. The external situation of Xiguang and the entire GX star system had long been thoroughly studied by the Imperial military and the Holy See.
It was just that they couldn’t breach the defense system here: first, because of the naturally formed moving debris belt, and second, because nearby there were Zerg aggregations strategically “farmed” by Blood Blade. Offending either one brought no good results.
After returning home empty-handed several times like this, the Empire and the Holy See eventually gave up trying to chew on this hard bone, turning instead to fighting Blood Blade only when outside.
He only now belatedly realized that the boss, who initially didn’t leave any room and let Xavier be dropped or lost, had actually tacitly allowed this little intelligent entity to follow all the way to Xiguang.
Gu Shen pondered further. He knew Xavier had a special mental power simulation system, which was perhaps initially designed for special medical purposes, and he also knew Xavier could alleviate the boss’s mental manic symptoms.
If he could use him for research, perhaps he could likewise mass-produce side-effect-free inhibitors targeting the boss’s condition…
The more Gu Shen thought about it, the more wrong it felt. According to the boss’s usual style of behavior, wasn’t this probably his real purpose all along?!
Looking back at Xavier—who had a pretty face and lively expressions, and although he loved to prank and pull on his hair/head top, was actually somewhat cute—a wave of guilt welled up inside him.
Xavier felt a bit creeped out by his look. “What are you doing…? If you don’t want to say it, forget it.”
At worst, he’d just ask someone else. Why make it look so deeply tragic? Truly incomprehensible, these humans.
In Gu Shen’s mind, an image had already formed of the little intelligent entity lying on an instrument getting examined while looking at him pitifully. Along with it, Xavier’s somewhat disdainful expression was replaced by tearful grievance; how could he still be unwilling?
“GX-3, which is Xiguang Star, is the third-sequence planet of the GX star system, and also the only planet with carbon-based life survival conditions. It’s a rocky planet, so everyone mainly lives in the same city—Xiguang City.”
Gu Shen tidied up his emotions and continued, “Xiguang City is also the only city on Xiguang Star, built along the mountain with a huge elevation drop. They say it’s the headquarters of the Blood Blade Star Pirate Group, but actually, it doesn’t just house our members and families; it’s a truly mixed-bag city, except that the governing body, the Xiguang City Council, is completely controlled by Blood Blade.”
“A mixed bag? Then what entry rules have you set up?”
Gu Shen was stunned for a moment. “…There aren’t any special restrictions, really. Anyway, Blood Blade is located in the upper city district where no one can enter. As for other places, as long as the Xiguang City Council votes and agrees, unaffiliated personnel can enter.”
But in reality, most personnel who managed to come to Xiguang had received Blood Blade’s tacit consent; after all, without their dynamic trajectory map, very few people could safely traverse the debris belt.
Xavier frowned slightly, inevitably generating doubt toward Cain’s management ability. “Aren’t you worried about spies sneaking in? As far as I know, that’s the Holy See’s favorite trick.”
“Blood Blade is Blood Blade, Xiguang City is Xiguang City.” Gu Shen explained with good nature. “Our base is absolutely not open to strangers. As for Xiguang City…”
Recalling the boss’s appearance, he tried hard to tighten his facial muscles and lowered his voice: “Anyone can come, but wanting to pass messages out? That depends on whether they have the ability to walk out alive.”
Xavier: …
That was definitely something that arrogant guy would say.
“Hehe.” After finishing his imitation of the boss, Gu Shen also felt he was a bit funny. He rubbed his nose and changed the subject: “We’re almost there. By then, the main body of the Blood Blade will be positioned outside the gravitational field, and we will take a companion ship to the airport east district, which is Blood Blade’s exclusive berth. I wonder how long the vacation will be this time, hopefully…”
Before his voice faded, another warning sound went off, giving the completely unprepared Gu Shen a start.
Seeing Xavier’s teasing look, he raised his voice somewhat awkwardly, “These rascals, what are… Huh, not a collision warning?”
He hurriedly opened his terminal, and No. 1’s cold, neutral voice sounded concurrently.
[Warning: Unrecognized fleet entering territory.]
Xavier was startled and mocked, “…So it really is true that anyone can come.”
“No, no, this is located in a marginal wild star region. The GX territory is drawn very large; if it only triggers the alarm now, it means the other party has just arrived at the debris belt.”
Gu Shen explained at a very fast speed, hurrying to leave while asking by the way, “Do you want me to let No. 1 open a temporary zone 3 permission for you to go back to my studio first?”
The moment his words fell, Xavier had already driven his small craft and leaped right in front of Gu Shen.
Through the porthole, the interest and eager experimentation in his pale golden eyes remained conspicuous.
“This Prince will go with you.”
When the two arrived at the control center, Rayen was reporting the situation to Cain.
The man stood with his back turned, only slightly turning his face upon hearing the commotion. He glanced over and saw it was Gu Shen, his cold gaze unchanged until a small black spaceship darted out from behind him.
The two pretty milky-white fangs on the bow were exceptionally eye-catching, seemingly baring themselves at him slightly.
Only then did Cain turn around, arms crossed as he stared at the reckless little craft.
Gu Shen hurried over and caught the key phrase in Rayen’s report, “It’s Wild Hunt?”
He had been messed with by Wild Hunt last time; because the other party used him to smuggle in monitoring equipment, he was ruthlessly dumped into the tenth district by the boss. Upon hearing this, he immediately cursed, “Venerable number two! Can’t win in a fight, coming over to provoke all the time—what is that supposed to mean?!”
Rayen gave an “ah” sound and threw an arm around his shoulder. “Little Shen is so angry. Should big bro go get revenge for you?”
“Don’t need you, the countermeasure system is enough.”
Gu Shen pushed him away, looked at the silent Cain, and said, “Boss, the gravity cannons positioned near the debris belt can directly disrupt their flight path, no need to send out—”
“I’m going out.” Cain cut him off.
The cabin fell silent for a few seconds.
Gu Shen widened his eyes, looking a bit dazed: “Boss? The countermeasure system really is enough. They didn’t even bring their flagship, they just sent a small fleet to harass us, no need—”
Amidst Gu Shen’s feeble objection, Cain straightened up.
Xavier clearly saw his figure move, his muscles tightening from spine to scapula like a bow drawn to its full limit, or an undercurrent lurking deep in a cold ocean.
The gloom and戾气 (malignant intent/wrath) accumulated over days all surged forth at this moment, finding a vent for release.
Cain strode toward the cabin door, pausing abruptly as he was about to step out, and turned back to look at Xavier.
The sharp edge of certainty was condensed in his depths, silently mouthing the words:
“Wait for me.”
Xavier’s gaze paused slightly until the man left, before he muttered in a low voice, “Bizarre.”
Ignored through the whole exchange, Gu Shen watched the boss leave and turned to scold Rayen, “Why are you just standing there, don’t you know how to say something!”
“Say what?” Rayen looked innocent. “The boss’s mental power deals with them like child’s play, what are you worried about?”
“But his men—” Gu Shen stopped abruptly halfway through, changing his tune, “Can’t talk sense with you. Where’s Grisha?”
“Having undergone successive jumps so many times, she’s busy regulating her tidal values right now.”
“…Ah!” Gu Shen let out a howl.
Xavier ignored the two’s seemingly endless bickering, instead opening the cabin roof and letting No. 1 pull up the direction of the unknown fleet’s invasion.
Seeing near the debris belt, a fleet was lining up, cautiously choosing their forward path. Gu Shen, who had been in the middle of a bickering match, glanced at it and sneered, “Looks like they made some preparations.”
Seeing that Wild Hunt’s fleet had broken through a portion of the debris belt defense line, Rayen couldn’t help clicking his tongue in wonder, “Wow, looks like the ones getting wiped out by the boss are the majority this time.”
The moment the words fell, a stream of silver and black intertwined radiance abruptly tore through the pitch-black cosmic deep space outside the cabin.
Cain piloted his mecha, leaving the shield range of the Blood Blade, and without turning on any long-range firepower, charged straight toward the enemy’s more than ten frontline main fleets.
The speed was so fast it broke the limits of visual capture; the floating debris fragments scattered around were instantly ground into powder by the airflow wrapped around the mecha, and even the light was stretched into faint residual shadows by the fierce mecha body.
In the span of a blink, before humans had time to complete a single eye-wink, the core power cabin of the lead vanguard frigate at the front of the fleet was precisely pierced. An eye-catching blast of light suddenly exploded, and the heavy alloy hull disintegrated piece by piece from the fracture point, with hundreds of millions of metal fragments splashing in all directions, turning into dust in the boundless sea of stars.
Only then did No. 1 manage to lock onto Cain’s coordinates, the holographic screen stretching and zooming to clearly project the full view onto the center of the cabin.
This was a close-combat mecha standing seven meters tall in full height. The mecha body lines were cold, hard, and clean, with its surface covered in a matte meteorite iron plating that emitted a restrained, cold, white, chilly gleam under the distant warship’s afterglow.
The exterior of the mecha did not pile on excessive long-range weapons and defense systems, leaning overall toward an extreme close-quarters combat type—cold, wild, possessing a sharp aesthetic, with every structure screaming offensive intent.
Facing the heavily armed steel warships, Cain never used any long-range weapons.
He operated the mecha entirely according to human close-combat habits. As the thrusters jetted, he sidestepped the incoming ship-borne particle cannon barrage, his metal boots heavily stomping onto the outer hull of the enemy warship, directly crushing through half-a-meter-thick protective alloy.
The next instant, the mecha’s right-arm muscle module overloaded to the maximum, and the vein-like energy conduits along the entire arm lit up with a crimson stream of light.
There were no fancy moves; it was just the simplest, most brutal straight punch, landing solidly on the weak node of the enemy warship’s energy shield.
Accompanied by the shield’s failure, the entire warship caved inward and bent from the impact point, completely disintegrating within moments.
Cain controlled the mecha to maintain the punching posture, without half a second of pause, stepping on the shattered hull debris to charge toward the next warship.
His fighting style was ferocious to the extreme, rampaging through the gaps of the massive fleet like a lone wolf breaking into a flock of sheep. Every strike was a fatal blow—domineering, decisive, carrying a destructive sense of oppression.
Inside the cabin, Xavier quietly stared at the holographic screen, his originally relaxed posture quietly tightening.
Cain’s ferocious close-quarters slaughter made his instinctual combat desire stir restlessly, even causing his pupils to condense into a slender, sharp,妖异 (uncanny/demonic) vertical slit.
His gaze locked dead onto that silver-black figure traversing the sea of stars, his fingertips unconsciously curling and tightening.
Until Celine reminded him: [Calm down, Xavier. The side effects of the protection spell not only affected your body size, but you’re also too easily stimulated by instincts right now. This is very dangerous.]
Awakened by those words, Xavier’s excited and restless blood gradually receded.
He belatedly noticed his body’s abnormality: the olfactory perception he had originally feared would be completely blocked by pheromones had actually turned on automatically under the stimulation.
Somewhat annoyed by this spell’s influence, just as he wanted to shield it again, he smelled a peculiar scent.
Not a complex environmental scent, nor the stench of blood, but rather…
The scent of a magical creature.
Xavier’s expression paused slightly, a trace of surprise flashing across the bottom of his eyes. “What’s going on? There are magical creatures here too?”
He raised his eyes to scan the holographic screen. Cain had already crushed the remaining enemy fleets, the outcome beyond doubt. With a shift in his thoughts, he tracked the scent.
It seemed to come from District 5.
This was an area Xavier had neither ventured into nor had permission for, which was also where the medical center was located.
To bypass the transfer station’s permission system, Xavier familiarly took some of Gu Shen’s biometric info, abandoned the small craft that would obviously get flagged, and left silently.
With Gu Shen’s biometric permission, the transfer station entrance cleared Xavier without any obstacles.
Following the scent, he tracked down an embedded hidden medical room in the wall, did a same-color matte camouflage, and it took him quite a bit of effort to enter.
Xavier’s eyes flashed with genuine astonishment as he took in the scene inside the cabin.
In the medical pod, Grisha’s face was pale and her entire body trembled tightly, abnormal mutation patterns faintly showing beneath her skin. The gravity buffering system inside the pod was operating at full capacity, forcibly suppressing her passive beast-transformation triggered by gravitational fluctuations after multiple jumps.
Xavier didn’t even need to sniff the air carefully.
Xavier: [She’s a werewolf?]
Celine: [Mhm.]
Xavier: [A werewolf, tidying up this Prince’s clothes?]
Celine: […Mhm.]
The two dark creatures couldn’t help revealing knowing smiles.
Xavier felt quite good about still being able to hold power over a werewolf three thousand years later, and unconsciously leaned closer to observe this werewolf of the interstellar era.
He leaped onto the cabin top, but the slight sound instantly woke the already unstable Grisha.
Her eyes rolled back, pupils shrinking into cold wolf pupils. Her reason completely shattered, and her sharp claws instantly popped out. Shoving open the pod lid, she lunged at Xavier wildly and without any pattern.
Although Xavier’s body had shrunk, his crisis awareness was hidden in his instincts, dodging Grisha’s chaotic attacks in a few moves.
It was just that in the chaos, Grisha hit the wall controller, and the screen automatically lit up, synchronously playing the external battle situation transmitted by No. 1.
Inside the light screen, Cain suddenly stopped moving, slowly turning his head to look at the lens, the crimson eyes on the mecha suddenly constricting. The next second, dark-as-ink mental power surged out from the mecha’s docking port, filling the entire starry sky and forming a boundless dark spiderweb.
The pressure pierced through the light screen and penetrated the small medical cabin, making even the air emit tiny tremors.
In a flash, that mental power had brutally wrapped around and shattered the last few remaining warships, turning them into powder mercilessly.
“What is he doing—”
Xavier froze, but a moment later, the claw wind laden with Grisha’s malice had already approached from behind, grazing past his earlobe. Fortunately, a cool force suddenly grabbed his arm.
Celine’s soul body manifested silently, cleanly and neatly dragging him into the negative-pressure isolation dark cabinet in the corner of the medical room, the cabinet door immediately closing and completely cutting off their tracks.
The airtight, cramped cabinet was pitch black. Xavier was still in shock.
“What is he doing, has he gone mad? Knowing full well his mental sea only just stabilized, he—”
The words abruptly jammed in his throat.
Xavier widened his eyes slightly, fragmentary memories crashing into his mind. Not long ago, Cain had said that when there was a need, “I will come to you in person for help.”
And that mouth shape before departure.
——Wait for me.