Every light beam was monitoring a certain area, pathway, warehouse or chamber.
Most of the places were now full of the Immortal Cultivators and space pirates.
On this particular light beam, two space pirates were captured, too. However, different from their companions, who were plundering the trophies merrily, they crawled into an inconspicuous tunnel after quite a few stealthy maneuvers, one in front and the other behind.
Then, the two of them took off their crystal suits so that they would be off the grid for the other space pirates.
What dumbfounded Li Yao were the faces of the two space pirates.
Li Yao knew who they were. They were the last people in the world that should and could have shown up.
They were Lei Dalu, captain of the Great Horn Exo Society, and Bai Kaixin, the advisor of the Great Horn Exo Society!
Are—are you kidding me?
What exactly is going on here? Why have Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin appeared in this place, pretending to be space pirates?
From the picture, Bai Kaixin seemed to be surprised that Lei Dalu should appear out of nowhere, too. The two of them stared at each with extremely weird expressions.
However, there was only picture but no sound on the light beam. Since they would turn their backs to the camera now and then, Li Yao had no idea what they were talking about. He could only see that Bai Kaixin sat down slowly leaning against the wall of the tunnel.
An even weirder thing then happened!
As, Bai Xinghe was in the Nascent Soul Stage, his senses were hundreds of times keener than ordinary people. Even when his killing intent had been raised to maximum, he was still paying close attention to the hundreds of light beams.
Therefore, Bai Xinghe discovered Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin no later than Li Yao did.
Then—
After being tense for more than half a minute, Bai Xinghe suddenly lost all his spirits like a balloon that had been pierced with a hole. The overwhelming aura around him was completely gone, and he was a dry, old man again!
Li Yao was even worried that, if Bai Xinghe took off his crystal suit, he would collapse to the ground immediately!
What—what kind of schemes and traps is this? Li Yao blinked his eyes, utterly confused.
Huala! Huala! Huala!
The ‘Blood River Battlesuit’ on Bai Xinghe suddenly exploded and sprayed all over the ground.
Before the fight began, he abandoned the advantages that he had secured through all the trouble and took off his crystal suit!
Without the protection of his crystal suit, the muscles all over Bai Xinghe’s body went sloppy. They were dangling down from his bones.
The intimidation and sharpness of the Pirate Potentate had disappeared, replaced by confusion and even anxiety, which Li Yao could not understand!
“Bring out the Dragon King Battlesuit,” Bai Xinghe said exhaustedly. “I’ll put on it.”
“Huh?”
Li Yao was baffled. He vaguely realized that Bai Xinghe’s uncanny behavior must have something to do with the abrupt appearance of Lei Dalu and Bai Kaixin.
It couldn’t be a trap. Their arrival was not within Bai Xinghe’s expectations and had completely disrupted Bai Xinghe’s neatly-made scheme!
Li Yao suddenly thought of something. He asked, “You said that I did you a favor by saving somebody else at the risk of my own life. I did indeed risk myself by saving the Great Horn Exo Society at the periphery of the Iron Plateau Space Zone. Is either Lei Dalu or Bai Kaixin related to you?”
Bai Xinghe was silent.
The hands of the Pirate Potentate, an expert in the Nascent Soul Stage, were shaking.
Li Yao raised his voice. “Boss Bai, what is going on exactly? You should tell me the whole truth now!
“If you really wish for a sincere cooperation between us, you should at least tell me your reasons and your plans!”
Bai Xinghe’s eyes suddenly turned dirty. There was resignation to the old proverb ‘man proposes but Heaven disposes’ 1 all over his face. He replied in an extremely coarse voice, “Alright. There’s not much time left for us. I’ll tell you everything!
“However, promise me that you will help me rescue them when you know everything!
“I’m begging you, Li Yao!”
…
In an inconspicuous tunnel deep below the underground fortress, the captain and the advisor of the Great Horn Exo Society were confronting each other in silence and in darkness.
Bai Kaixin was already living in depression every day in the first place. Right now, his face was so gloomy that it was if it would rain at any moment. He said coldly, “You shouldn’t have come here.”
Lei Dalu picked his ears and flicked his earwax to the tunnel casually. Then he said, “Should or shouldn’t, I’m already here.”
Bai Kaixin gnashed his teeth. “What are you doing here?”
Lei Dalu opened his hands and said, “A month ago, Mr. Advisor of the Great Horn Exo Society, my best bro, left me an odd letter casually, claiming that he would like to quit the Great Horn Exo Society. Then he went missing mysteriously never to be seen again.
“Of course, I tried my best to track him down and see if I could persuade him to come back. But I did not know that I would find a great secret. As it turned out, he was dissatisfied about the life in the Great Horn Exo Society because it was too boring and unrewarding, and he decided to start a new career that had quite promising prospects named space pirate.
“Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. There are indeed a lot of treasures in the underground fortress. I was told that the main warehouse on the bottom level has mountains of gold and silver. I felt so tempted that I was thinking of joining the enemy’s side when I had the opportunity!”
The phrase ‘space pirate’ seemed to stimulate Bai Kaixin’s nerves. He suddenly burst into fury and blurted out, “I am not a space pirate!”
His words echoed inside the tunnel.
Lei Dalu grinned and stared at him in silence.
Bai Kaixin seemed to have lost all his strength. He sat down slowly, leaning against the corner, while he said sadly, “You shouldn’t have come. It’s dangerous here. Very dangerous. You might get killed at any moment!”
“Okay.”
Lei Dalu scratched his nose and said, “Then, at least tell me what I going to be killed for.”
Bai Kaixin was silent for a long time. His eyes suddenly turned hollow, and his voice seemed to be coming from a deep cave. He finally resolved himself to tell the whole story.
“A long time ago, there was a young man whose parents were both Cultivators.
“As far as he could remember, he had been living with his mother. His mother was a gentle and smart woman. Although she was busy at work, she never forgot to teach him the strictest principles of the Cultivators.
“He had heard a lot of stories where Cultivators helped the weak, punished the evil, and protected the ordinary people from his mother since he was a little kid. He secretly swore that he would become a Cultivator in his mother’s story somebody.
“His father was always out and rarely went back home. Even when he was at home, he was always serious and seldom asked about him.
“But his parents loved each other very much. In the rare days when his father was at home, they would spend a lot of time together talking and laughing. It was quite warm.
“Many families were like this one. The young man did not think too much of it in the beginning.
“However, as the young man grew older, he discovered that his living environment was kind of weird.
“The young man and his mother lived in an underground chamber. Although there were all kinds of facilities, including the virtualization magical equipment that could simulate sunlight and natural environment, the young man hardly ever got in touch with other people. Other than his mother, his only playmates were the silly beast puppets.
“When he was old enough to surf the Nexus, his mother allowed him to. But it was clear that all the information had been filtered multiple times, as if she was scared that the young man might find out something.
“I forgot to mention that the young man’s mother was a very awesome expert in crystal processors. What she had been busy doing was attempting to crack a batch of ancient crystal processors.
“The young man grew older and more suspicious every day. He felt that he had been living in a carefully constructed greenhouse.
“Finally, one day, when his mother was busy, the young man ran away from home and saw the real world that he was living in for the first time!
“What a scary world it was!
“Dead bodies were everywhere in the stinky gutters. All the people on the street were like animals in human skin. Crazy devils were dancing in the soul-stirring neon lights!
“The young man was even fooled and almost sold as a slave. Thankfully, his father’s subordinates came in time.
“His father’s subordinates started a merciless slaughter immediately. Not only did they kill those who tricked the young man, they also slew many irrelevant, innocent people in the cruelest methods!
“The scene awed the young man profoundly.
“The young man finally learned that the world he had been living on was Spider Den, the most terrifying place in the entire Flying Star Sector!
“His father was not one of the Cultivators from his mother’s stories at all, but a ruthless space pirate!
“What was even more horrifying was that the love between his father and his mother was perhaps faked. It was possible that his mother did not live with his father at her will at all!
“His mother had been captured during a hunting job of the space pirates. Because of her fierce resistance, his father could’ve executed her without any hesitation.
“However, his father earlier found a batch of ancient crystal processors that he could not crack himself. Therefore, after learning that his mother was an expert in crystal processors, his father spared his mother’s life.
“Moreover, even his own birth was likely based on an extremely cruel reason!
“His father wanted his mother to stay in the underground willingly to help him crack the crystal processors. His father also feared that she might do tricks to the crystal processors in secret. Therefore, his father raped her in the most sordid ways, until he was born in the end.
“He was born to be a tool that his father could use to threaten his mother!
“Hehe. The young man finally discovered that everything in his life was a lie.
“He finally understood the origin of his name.
“The young man was named… Bai Wuxin 2 !
“His father had been a tearless, heartless, and lawless bastard the whole time!
“The young man found everything completely unacceptable and had a mental breakdown. After several years of life in confusion and denial, the last accident that put him in the utmost desperation happened.
“Soon after the super crystal processors were successfully cracked, Bai Wuxin’s mother died!
“All the evidence suggested that it was his father who killed her!
“That was quite reasonable. The super crystal processors had been cracked. His mother was no longer of any value, but she was a threat who could potentially leak the secrets of the underground world. Therefore, it was only natural that his father shut his mother’s mouth once and for all!
“After all, his father was a man without feelings. What kind of things could he not do?”