Xavier looked at Kane.
“Those magi… aren’t those ‘cargoes’ shipped here for trading?”
Kane didn’t expect Xavier’s unusual reaction to be because of this. He raised an eyebrow slightly, staring at the other person with a half-smile, “Of course not. You didn’t actually know?”
As everyone knew, the Bloodedge Star Pirate Group and the Holy See were completely at odds with each other.
The Holy See had “Hunters” to capture magical creatures, and Bloodedge specialized in intercepting their hunting ships, grabbing the magical creatures within and sending them to various places.
It specialized in targeting them.
Bloodedge also never did “business” involving magical creatures.
This could almost be said to be a kind of common sense that had already been incorporated into the knowledge base of an intelligent entity; how could Xavier “misunderstand” that he was buying and selling magical creatures?
Kane took Xavier down from his shoulder, his grey-blue eyes staring straight at him, “Buying and selling magical creatures is not an interesting thing at all; I prefer more thrilling business.”
His fingers gradually tightened.
There was a subtle teasing in Kane’s eyes as he deliberately scared Xavier.
“Besides, in terms of rate of return, selling you would be a business with zero capital and massive profits. Little things as pretty as you are most popular among the empire’s nobility.”
Under his deliberate manipulation, Xavier lost his balance and sat backward on Kane’s finger.
However, His Highness the Prince merely lifted his eyelids indifferently, even shifting his body to adjust himself to the most comfortable sitting posture, leaning lazily upon it.
“No one can afford this Prince’s price. You must understand, it is I who gave you and your battleship the opportunity to perform, allowing you to become my temporary mount.”
Hearing the familiar tone, Kane wanted to laugh at how overly arrogant this little intelligent entity was, but the soft and springy touch transmitted from his finger made a strange sensation bubble up in the depths of his heart.
It felt as if his internal organs were being lightly and heavily scratched by something, making his fingertips itch and always making him want to grasp something fiercely.
He gave Feiyue a look, and the latter immediately found a clean, soft cloth, placing it on the bar counter.
Kane pressed down on a corner of the cloth, moved it closer to his own direction, and then placed Xavier down.
His posture looked very much like a manifestation of voluntarily backing down. Xavier felt slightly satisfied with this, thinking that Kane at least had some self-awareness.
So he stepped onto the cloth without looking back.
Seeing this scene, a flash of surprise crossed Feiyue’s eyes, and she lowered her head evasively, only to meet the gaze of Xavier, who had finished settling his stance.
Xavier nodded slightly.
“There was a small misunderstanding just now. I am Xavier Vantrue, a Blood Prince, and I once had a few encounters with Bai Ze of the Eastern spirits and monsters lineage. I mean no harm.”
Xavier thought for a moment and added, “Back then, I also traveled to Qingqiu and saw your kind.”
“Is it Mount Qingqiu?”
Feiyue’s already surprised eyes widened even further, and she let out an involuntary cry of pleasant surprise, but quickly realized her loss of composure and looked at Kane behind Xavier.
She owed her life to Kane and couldn’t avoid fearing the “Tyrant,” wanting to close her mouth nervously, but she saw Kane shake his head slightly toward her.
Feiyue understood instantly.
She gathered her emotions, leaving only curiosity behind, and spoke, “Mr. Vantrue…”
“Just call me Your Highness.”
Feiyue went along with the flow: “Alright, Your Highness.”
Xavier felt a bit more comfortable, and taking the opportunity, he cast a sidelong glance at Kane, signaling him to learn a thing or two.
His Highness the Prince acted swiftly, essentially not caring about Kane’s response. The moment his single look of signaling was done, he turned his head right back.
Leaving behind the man in the rear whose movements paused momentarily, who ultimately swallowed his response with a cold face and silently took the glass of strong liquor just handed over by the waiter.
Watching the interaction between the two, a strange guess arose in Feiyue’s heart, which she quickly brushed away as she carefully asked, “Your Highness, what is Qingqiu like? To tell the truth in shame, although I possess the bloodline of the fox clan, I only heard about Qingqiu from my mother’s lips when I was young. The fox clan has left their homeland for a very long time…”
Speaking of this, Feiyue also developed a genuine sense of melancholy.
Xavier recalled the past events of traveling to the East back then; that was even a story from before he ruled Florence.
At that time, he was powerful and free, and a pure-blood noble who didn’t even fear sunlight could tour all parts of the world to his heart’s content, leaving an exceptionally deep impression of the vast and species-rich East.
He pondered for a moment, slowly recounting based on his memory: “At that time, I was chasing a human-faced fish, tracing the Ying Water flanked by bamboo forests all the way up to Mount Qingqiu. Everywhere there were jades and stones, glowing with glistening light under the sunlight, and fox clan cubs were chasing and playing all over the mountains. Later, a nine-tailed white fox came out to fight—cough, to welcome this Prince.”
“Are there many cubs?” Feiyue’s voice involuntarily rose a bit, and she continued to ask, “Your Highness, is that nine-tailed fox powerful?”
“Passable for a fight.”
Xavier answered offhandedly, completely oblivious to the fact that he had exposed the topic he had just tried to conceal.
“Your clansmen were quite generous, knowing that this Prince loves rare treasures like jade, and specially sent out the best-looking fine jade of Mount Qingqiu as a farewell gift.”
A few frames of imagery appeared in Feiyue’s mind, bringing a trace of wistfulness into her enchanting fox eyes, and she couldn’t help muttering, “That’s wonderful.”
Mount Qingqiu sparkling with light, and the cubs chasing and playing all over the mountains—it sounded so wonderful.
Feiyue couldn’t help asking for more, and Xavier picked out the things he knew to talk about.
The two of them chatted very agreeably, coincidentally ignoring everyone else.
For His Highness the Prince, the awkward emotion of misunderstanding Kane had long since vanished cleanly. At present, Xavier was in a fairly good mood, and even his jellyfish-like spiritual tentacles were swaying happily behind him.
Kane stared at those translucent, seemingly soft, pure white tentacles, completely unable to connect them to the fact that their owner’s face currently wore an arrogant and haughty expression.
Not to mention Xavier’s eloquent appearance.
If it hadn’t been for Gu 深’s repeated testing, which asserted with certainty that Xavier was an intelligent entity without any biological characteristics, Kane would have even suspected that the little fellow in front of him was truly the legendary blood族.
Of course, a miniature version at most.
Yet Xavier was an intelligent entity, and an intelligent entity who knew more details about the rare fox clan than the fox clan themselves.
Where would his knowledge source come from?
If one wanted to talk about someone who knew magical creatures inside and out, there was no one more knowledgeable than the Holy See, which dedicated itself to promoting the “Doctrine of Original Sin of Magical Creatures.”
However, if this was designed by the Holy See to come for him, yet after meeting Feiyue, he didn’t even give him another glance—was this a hard-to-get trick played by this little fellow?
The grey-blue eyes behind the mask stared closely at Xavier’s back, which appeared even more imposing when facing a lady. His large, knuckle-defined hand slowly shook the wine glass, the veins on the back of his hand rising and falling with the movement.
Just like his attitude toward the intelligent entity in front of him, going up and down, hard to pin down.
Kane suddenly downed the strong liquor in his hand in one gulp, placing the empty wine glass on the bar counter with a rather loud clatter in this relatively quiet corner.
Xavier, whose train of thought had been disrupted, turned around, his brows slightly furrowed, and a trace of dissatisfaction overflowing from his thin-gold pupils as he complained, “You’re so noisy.”
From Kane’s perspective, the spiritual tentacles behind Xavier no longer flicked happily as before, but instead grew vigilant.
Simply like a small animal’s tail.
However, why could he be so happy facing Feiyue, someone he had just met, while keeping his guard fully up against him?
Kane’s face sank.
He probably needed to let Xavier understand his own situation, lest he continue to provoke his patience.
Yet at this moment, an uproar suddenly erupted in the already lively tavern, drawing away Xavier’s attention.
It turned out that several newly entered young guests were talking about the motorcycle parked and standing at the entrance.
“It’s a Phantom, I didn’t see that wrong, right? The VF-9 series?! I remember there aren’t even a few of these in the Empire’s Central Star, and our RX-2 has one too?”
“Your news is way too outdated, they’ve had them for the past few years, but there are only two in total. One was ridden away by Vasily’s youngest son, and the other still seems to be registered under ‘that person’s’ name.”
“But didn’t the ‘little crown prince’ run off to play in other star systems recently? Why is there a Phantom VF-9 here?”
“You’re asking that? You think people aren’t allowed to lend their motorcycles out? If it’s not his, whose else could it be? Hahaha, it couldn’t possibly be the ‘Stellar Remains Tyrant’ who came over to our place… right?”
The last two words were soft as a gnat’s buzz.
The tavern instantly fell into a terrifying silence; evidently, everyone remembered the Sword of Thorns that was still spinning in the firmament.
And Xavier’s train of thought was led astray. Looking at the reactions of everyone in the tavern sitting on pins and needles, he asked with great interest.
“The ‘Stellar Remains Tyrant’, is this your title?”
Kane didn’t answer and instead asked, “How do you know they were talking about me?” After all, Xavier didn’t know the specific origin of his motorcycle.
Xavier couldn’t help curling his lips in disdain, “Temperament.”
Just as Kane frequently felt that Xavier loved putting on airs, in Xavier’s eyes, Kane was almost synonymous with arrogance and flamboyance.
Hearing the subtext in his words, the man couldn’t help letting out a low laugh, and all the previous displeasure in his heart miraculously dissipated by more than half.
Kane’s hand passed through those semi-manifested spiritual tentacles that only he could see, a faint, cool, and soft weak touch seemingly blooming on his palm. His wheat-colored, scar- and callus-covered large hand formed a sharp contrast with the pure white, jellyfish-like beautiful tentacles.
Drooping his double eyelids, before Xavier could react, he proactively scooped up the other’s slender waist, his ring finger and pinky giving a slight lift beneath Xavier’s buttocks, effortlessly transferring the small intelligent entity onto his shoulder.
“Unimportant. But it’s time for us to leave.”
After getting his answer, Xavier didn’t care about staying or leaving. Finding his familiar landing spot on Kane’s shoulder, as the man stood up, he turned his head and nodded to Feiyue, “Then, goodbye.”
The fox spirit left behind the bar counter wore a genuine smile and bowed gracefully toward them.
“Looking forward to seeing you again, Your Highness.”
Stepping out of the Crimson Tavern, even the air felt a few degrees fresher, and Xavier quickly shook his spiritual tentacles.
He always felt that after taking a trip through that tavern, even they had become a bit weird, as if they had picked up some strange things.
In his peripheral vision, Kane could see the translucent jellyfish tentacles floating softly under the lights, emitting a pale, glistening radiance.
His heart felt a slight itch, and he couldn’t help wondering what this beautiful jellyfish would look like in true darkness, so he slowly walked into the dark alley beside the tavern.
“Stop right there!”
A muddled shout coming from deep within the alley made both the big and small figures stop their movements.
In the gloom, two pairs of eyes belonging to predators simultaneously shot toward the newcomer.
Xavier closed his eyelids slightly, thin-gold pupil light overflowing from between his eyes, carrying the unique languidness and craftiness of the blood族, effortlessly taking everything into his field of vision.
The newcomer reeked of alcohol and held an obsolete firearm, clearly having mixed down into the lower rungs in the massive dark arena of Florui City.
If he were stopped and offended by such an unobservant, low-level creature, Xavier would probably be angry enough to directly unleash his ultimate move.
But if Kane was going to look foolish, he would be more than happy to see it happen.
He whistled, gloating gleefully.
“Mr. Bandit, you’ve been robbed.”
His Highness the Prince even whistled with style, but when Kane heard it, whether in tone or length, it completely mimicked his own sound when he had arrived.
So the little intelligent entity had been secretly learning while complaining that he was frivolous.
Imagining that scene, the corners of Kane’s usually cold and hard mouth unconsciously curved into a bit of an arc.
As for that punk, he merely cast half a thread of indifferent gaze his way, stingily unwilling to even give him extra expression, making it clear he couldn’t be bothered to care.
Yet the drunken punk did not realize he was brushing past death by a hair’s breadth, and still slurred his speech in command.
“Throw that little thing on your shoulder to me!”
Although he was drunk, his skills at robbing hadn’t completely fallen away. The geographical advantage of the RX-2 created its “three-no-control” situation, but it also meant all resources came from illegal channels like star pirates offloading goods, among which high-tech products were the most scarce.
A little thing like the one before him—at a glance, he knew it could fetch a good price!
Yet he did not wait for the other party’s plea for mercy.
The punk burped out a drunk hiccup, shook his gun, and repeated impatiently, “Did you hear me, put that… Ah!!!”
Before the threatening words could even leave his mouth, his knee was instantly shattered. The punk burst out into a violent wail, uncontrollably dropping to his knees on the ground.
Struggling to raise his head amidst excruciating pain, he could only see a figure exceptionally towering in the night, and a pair of chilling grey-blue eyes.
Kane changed his mind.
His deep voice, like the death knell, pierced through the painful wails and reached the punk’s ear.
“My things, it’s not the turn of outsiders to covet.”