Legend Is The Supreme Soldier

by Stayrr

Ye Chong was a denizen of Trash Planet-12. On one fateful day, he discovered a treasure that would forever alter his destiny from a pile of junk – Mu Shang, an unknown machine with artificial intelligence and a lost memory. Together, they venture into the vast galaxy as the isolated “caveman” that was Ye Chong began absorbing all sorts of knowledge and meeting people from all walks

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Legend of the Supreme Soldier #Chapter 129 - Loss and Gain - Read Legend of the Supreme Soldier Chapter 129 - Loss and Gain Online - All Page - Novel Next

Chapter 129: Loss and Gain

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Sob.

Ye Chong gave a stare of a husband looking at a dying wife at Yu Di. It was harshly devastated by the air raid, like Harmony back then. And this one could be better off at the dump. How fateful he met Yu Di, such fitting mech to his personality with such striking gadgets in-built and he lost it. The cool appearance, the cartridge, the four arms, everything had become the lump of iron on the ground. It was heartbreaking to Ye Chong as not only Yu Di was a rare all-rounder, the four arms on it allowed his overwhelming hand movement speed to exert the maximum output. After pairing with various models of mechs, Yu Di was undeniably the perfect consort!

And… the former glory was gone! He took a good look at it, his hands caressing it in sympathy. Nothing like Yu Di before was remained. It was fully charred. The body was cracked from the impulse caused by the energy collision. The arms… It was a pain in Ye Chong's heart to even mention it. Only the arm with the cartridge was intact, the rest had probably raised upon the heaven, with a tiny bit of them stuck at the body. The state was hopeless, as the missiles were specially tailored by Fred the Great, those were unique and non-renewable, except if they encountered Fred the Great again… Wonder how many light years it would take if they were going to meet again.

Other than the engine, none of the other parts were functional…

Hei Zi felt the cracks and scratches on Yu Di with his hands, "Gosh! Did they cause these? But I must say you are fortunate to make it out alive!" exclaimed Hei Zi. Though the fact that he abandoned Ye Chong was haunting them. It could be for Nan Nan's safety, still… Hei Zi couldn't forgive himself!

Nan Nan sat across Ye Chong's shoulders with her hands clipped on Ye Chong's collar to prevent falling as she began her commentary, "Poor… poor big, big mech!" Yu Di was about 20 meters tall, which was twice the length of an ordinary mech, hence the "big, big" statement from Nan Nan.

"Sigh," Hei Zi took a moment to inspect the mech, his face looked depressed, his head shaking. "There's nothing we can do. What a waste to a good mech."

Ye Chong stood before Yu Di, his hands stuck on its body, hoping that a miracle could happen. Maybe he could still feel the heartbeat somewhere! Maybe he could ask Hei Zi's master to try fixing it! Yes! "Ye." Mu's voice came ringing in his head, "According to the outcome of my analysis, the probability of reversing the damage done to Yu Di is below 5%." An official declaration of death from the expert.

"Big brother…" Nan Nan's words came weakly.

Ye Chong was calm on the outside but he was wailing on the inside! Although he had Guardian, which by any chance would perform way better than Yu Di in his hand, its attacking range was much smaller than Yu Di. It was also a typical model for usage within the atmosphere, which raised another issue of whether the miniature mech could travel in space like Yu Di before. And then capability of combating in space… you've got to be joking! Chances were Gu Shaoze never thought about using this suit to fight in space! The mobility of the Guardian was granted by Ye Chong's own explosive capacity of muscles plus the magnification by the miniature engines. You could not find anything to exert forces on to produce movement! Ye Chong might have ended up in space and got stuck in the weightless state. There could be meteorites for him to step on but meteorites do not come every minute! Without the amazing burst of speed in short distance for survivability, the Guardian was merely a bullseye for the other pilots to aim on!

Frankly speaking, Yu Di was more balanced in all aspects. It was a brawling model but with the addition of the cartridge, the aspect of being able to do ranged attack was fulfilled. And it would still be a good model for brawling in space!

Ye Chong was in the Orbits - most likely he would encounter battles in space and fortunately he got the Guardian - the finest weapon on the ground, which had zero capacity in space. Ye Chong tried to be optimistic but he could not! How could Ye Chong not be sorrow about this? Moreover, thanks to the grand debut by his Guardian, the entire infantry of the Orbits should be coveting the miniature amazement. He could imagine how thousands of Dawn mechs would eat him up the moment he appeared in a golden suit, glaring at the pedestrian like the LED of the street!

You had finally found the Excalibur somewhere in the world, but you must hide it or you'll die, you could not wield it in front of people, you could not even use it to chop trees because the people would come like a nest of bees hunting you down and for all the trouble you broke the chopping knife of your house - this probably summed up Ye Chong's gloomy salad days.

"Don't be sad, pal!" By looking at how grievous Ye Chong was, Hei Zi smiled with his teeth shining brighter on his tanned skin, "The new does not come without the old leaving." There was some mystery running on his face. It was weird to see a sincere man like him to put up such a mischievous face.

Ye Chong stared at Hei Zi skeptically. Hei Zi quickly lowered his head. Huh… Ye Chong could see somehow Hei Zi was trying to hold his laugh the whole time. What was so funny?

It was dinner and Ye Chong had it with Nan Nan and Hei Zi as usual. The mentioned grandfather had never appeared before the dining table. Sometimes Ye Chong wondered if the sincere brother and sister were having a fictional grandfather who was in pink of health in spite of an old age.

Hei Zi was happily having his meal though. Back then, Nan Nan was a monster to tame during dinner time. It took him wrestling effort to get the girl sitting still to finish her food. Things had changed ever since Ye Chong arrived. Nan Nan was tamed by herself, where every dinner ran smoothly. The first time it was Hei Zi that could feel the family life was such wonder.

Ye Chong lay on the bed after dinner. Little Nan Nan was sleeping on her bed nearby. Soundly Nan Nan slept, anyone could have told the little girl had a great time in the day. Nan Nan did have her own room but… when Ye Chong decided to move in, she showed persistence of moving in along as she rampaged in the living room, demanding Hei Zi to take action. In the end, the kind Brother Hei Zi lifted her bed all the way to Ye Chong's room.

Ye Chong was researching about mentalist. The training was sadly not as effective as he expected. Probably as the databank had mentioned, his talent was terribly inadequate in this. He was not going to give up however. He might had an inadequate mana to do mentalist efficiently but he knew his ability was being enhanced, just that the rate was too measly he could not tell. He needed it anyway. Every bit of improvement meant something!

He started communicating with Mu after researching for quite some time.

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"Hey Mu, say if we were still at home, what would have happened?" asked Ye Chong, feeling nostalgic of Trash Planet-12. The world outside was more than entertaining yet it was bewildering to Ye Chong sometimes. It felt like Ye Chong started off like a blinded rat in a maze, heading into nothing, having no plan about his next move, hitting into walls and breaking them from time to time. He had nothing in mind and only acted upon the situation coming to him, only acted based on the surroundings.

What should he do the day after? Ye Chong did not hold a kind of concept for this. It was solely a matter of survival - it was not about what to do the day after, it was about whether if he could live till the day after. The outside world was known to be dangerous and Ye Chong was taking extreme care of himself the whole time but slowly he realized that, unlike the Trash Planet, the outside world did not seem to have a sense of alert all the time, since… most people were safe most of the time!

On the Trash Planet, Ye Chong's sole purpose was to stay alive. However after leaving the planet, the purpose was no longer a thing in his mind, which confused him a little. After interacting with ordinary citizens from the other planets - getting into knowing them, talking to them, understanding their jokes, getting involved in their lives, somehow the nature's law of survival he had strong faith on was cloaked by modernity and had transformed into something foreign there to him. Without the stress on survivability, with the new set of law so strange, his life felt relaxing yet unreal…

Sensed the paradigm shift in Ye Chong, Mu wanted to comment something sensible, but he was not Shang, his mood matrix was unable to compute the changes, "Based on the information obtained, possibly you are still fighting with mutated lifeforms and you should be 40% behind your training progress compared to you here." That was Mu's answer towards Ye Chong's odd inquiry as he tried imagining life lingering on Trash Planet-12.

"Mhm. But that sort of life was boring anyway! Mu, do you have an ambition?" asked Ye Chong.

"Ambition?" Mu tried processing the term perceived but the definition puzzled him. Well if it was Shang, he probably should have a motivational talk an hour long with Ye Chong by then!

"Umm… Ambition is something like what you would want to do the most in the future!" Ye Chong tried explaining with the limited knowledge in his head.

"If that is the case, my ambition would be staying by Ye's side," flatly his answer came.

It was a little touching to Ye Chong though!

"Hey."

!

Out of sudden, Ye Chong was alarmed by the whisper, he heard the footsteps approaching him.

The door was knocked and was opened, oh it was Hei Zi. Ye Chong was relieved. "Ye, I-" Hei Zi shut his mouth abruptly upon seeing Nan Nan sleeping soundly in the bed. He then gestured Ye Chong to come out in excitement.

Ye Chong tiptoed to the outside of the room. Once he was out, Hei Zi came right to his face, whispering in leaking joy, "Come with me. My master wants to see you!"

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Chapter 130: The Workshop Underground

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Technically, Hei Zi's master happened to be Nan Nan's grandfather.

Ye Chong tailed Hei Zi to the backyard. It was a new spot of Nan Nan's home to Ye Chong as Hei Zi had never brought Ye Chong there before. The backyard was not totally secluded however, it was merely because Ye Chong had been to busy minding his own business to take a peek at someone else's backyard. The place was spacious but Ye Chong's animalistic intuition suggested him a kind of danger lurking in the place. He could smell it! In addition, Hei Zi was also acting quite cautiously as he led the road, "Stick to me. Closely!" he reminded from time to time as they moved. Ye Chong followed him closely, where he even mimicked the pace of Hei Zi's step. Ye Chong did not intend to try anything funny at that moment. Certainly there was some catapulting or killing machine hidden in such an ordinary backyard…

"Great!" Mu's voice rang, he sounded impressed, "This is a creative security." Unfortunately there was no processor to transmit the data he received from the surrounding. Ye Chong could not speculate what sort of "creative security" there was in the yard. Well, if Mu complimented it, probably it should be rather powerful by nature. Regarding creativity… Who cares?

Since Mu had kind of "warned" about it, Ye Chong walked on as he literally laid the exact step as Hei Zi's.

At the inner area of the yard there was a giant house made out of stones and bricks. It looked pretty normal from the outside. "Ye, let me remind you that the walls contain a fairly thick and highly dense alloy board." The next comment had justified Ye Chong the anomaly of this house, "It also contains a certain standard of anti-detection ability."

"Anti-detection ability?" Ye Chong wowed, "A certain standard of?" He became confused… What in the Haleyson he meant by "a certain standard"? What kind of "standard"? Mu shouldn't be using a word this vague… Wasn't there usually a range of figures at least?

"Mhm, that is correct. A certain standard of anti-detection ability, which even though are ineffective against me, it is effective even on the most advanced detection systems in the market," explained Mu. "I see." Ye Chong was enlightened.

He realized how roomy the inside was too. A purplish brown board was hung at the wall right opposite them, with a calligraphy written, "The Spirit Shines in the Bones of the Blade*". Ye Chong's attention was not on the meaning behind it, rather he wondered if the calligraphy was well-done, but he had zero expertise on calligraphy that he could not give his comment! There were numerous strange-looking apparatuses laid around the room while a variety of odd-looking things were scattered over the floor. A careful glance and Ye Chong recognized some of them! Those should be some skeletons of mutated lifeforms! He had seen countless of these back on Trash Planet-12! While the others… Ye Chong took a better glance… he could not tell. The texture was really peculiar though… with some of them having a metallic gloss.

"These are some substandard products… some people called it 'defective products'… Well, they are defective by nature but it's kind of a waste if we just throw them out of the window. So my master kept them here, considering how sometimes these could be useful recyclables!" Hei Zi looked much more relieved after getting into the house as he joyfully explained to Ye Chong.

Hei Zi's step was broadened as they had arrived at the center of the house after a brief moment of conversation. A few taps on the interface and a few turns on the knob, Hei Zi clicked the apparatus by his side. He led Ye Chong to a corner after that. There was somehow… a square hollow at the ground. A flight of stairs was extended to the underground. The taps and turns were probably triggers to the opening here! Such an exceptional design! Hiding the switch inside here among the sea of junks and apparatuses, it sure would be a hassle for an intruder to even find the entrance.

Little glimmer shone through the first few steps by the hole. The staircases seemed endless… Ye Chong could not tell the end of the stairs, he could barely see the bottom! It should be a very, very deep underground… Why do these people like to get themselves this deep under the surface? Ye Chong did not get the logic behind this.

"Come," Hei Zi initiated his steps as he walked downstairs. Ye Chong could do nothing else than tailing him quickly. "Mhm?" The place was of total darkness the moment Ye Chong got down, as the moving flooring on the surface had been closed. Ye Chong was a little surprised the fact that he was not aware of the flooring closing up. If it was not the sudden change of lighting, he could not tell… as he could hardly hear a sound from the surface even with his hearing. This was a trivial detail yet it was convincing enough to tell Ye Chong that even the flooring was of great craftsmanship!

"Now…" Stated Hei Zi as they walked on, "This is the real workshop. My master works here usually. And I'm here most of the time too. But I'm still doing the hammering, I'm not working on the important part." His voice was already loud on the surface, it sounded like a roaring buzz underground.

"Oh," Ye Chong responded as he followed on. He still had the slightest idea on calling from Nan Nan's grandfather… The place was really concealed too, unlike the backyard… They should not be bringing guests for a simple greeting or whatever… Then what was this? Ye Chong did not worry about his own safety though. He was confident of his strength back then, besides, he had the Guardian, which indisputably was the lord of fighters!

And there was Mu too!

Yeah, that's the point!

The stairs were much longer than he expected. It went way, way, down under the ground. Luckily they moved pretty quickly which the glimmering exit turned brighter and Ye Chong could hear the clinks of the machines. And Ye Chong sensed the ground shaking a little as they got to the bottom. No wonder they had it so deep into the ground! The shake would have alarmed anyone nearby!

What were they doing down here? Ye Chong was intrigued, very intrigued.

At the end of the stairs, a shocking scene awaited before him!

He did not predict such an airy space at the underground. This basement should have the size of a spaceship, he believed. The roof was of a metallic silver… which was unordinary as the frames appeared to be made out of metallic skeletons about an arm broad overlapping each other… The basement was not supported by any pillar! The skeletons were the only support to hold the room from collapsing! The lighting was great too. Ye Chong could see everything at one glance at least! By the stairs there were a rack of countless squares, which every of it contained a kind of parts of mech. It was the same part but of different models and qualities, so it looked dazzling to Ye Chong.

Overwhelming! These accessories were well-placed on the rack, like rows of armies. And judging by their appearance, Ye Chong could tell that all of these accessories were of top-quality! Such premium gears sitting together, it was like a parade, a carnival to Ye Chong. He was mesmerized, knowing that how many mechs one could make with these parts! It could fill the entire exhibition hall!

Between these racks there was an empty lane leading to elsewhere. Hei Zi gestured Ye Chong to move on this road.

On their way to the next destination, Ye Chong eyed the parts like a hungry wolf, covetous his sight wafted through the racks. "Great parts!" Mu reviewed with honesty, which further set Ye Chong on blaze!

"Really? Maybe I can show you some parts, only show, hahaha!"

…

Once Hei Zi stepped into a particular room, he went quiet completely, as his expression grew stern, even his steps came lighter.

After they left Ye Chong's most adored area, he withdrew his longing sight and then he inspected the other places. Tightly connected to the area of parts of fantasy, there was an area filled with a lot of never-before-seen apparatus. The clinks and the booms came from these machines apparently. But they seemed a little outdated… they did not have the "techy" look of modern technology… However Ye Chong must admit that these machines were well-maintained. Likewise to the parts, the machines were properly placed too. An elderly was operating one of the machines and he seemed focused. The product was appearing in the machine. There was only a silhouette, but judging by the outline of the product, Ye Chong speculated it being some sort of connecting buckle of the mech's inside.

Behind these machines there were tons of raw materials piling. Ye Chong could simply tell a few of them being the mutated lifeforms he recognized, like those he saw on the ground, but there were much more unidentifiable skeletons scattered on the floor.

With respect Hei Zi walked to the old man, he exchanged conversation with the old man in whispers, which Ye Chong could not hear a word. Nan Nan's grandfather briefly pointed his machine and pointed the around, nodded as he turned to Ye Chong and he turned back to his work again. Hei Zi looked at Ye Chong awkwardly with a laugh. Well Ye Chong shook his head. It was okay, his face said. The old man probably asked him to wait as he was in the middle of something.

He waited for literally 30 minutes and finally Nan Nan's grandfather had his work done, as he switched off the machine. The room turned dead silent after the machine was shut. The hair was snow-white on his head, his face looked laborious, "How do you feel…" His word came reluctant, "After seeing all these?" He forced a smile as he waved his arms open.

"Not bad!" Ye Chong replied concisely.

"Hehehe…" Nan Nan's grandfather chuckled, "Good! Good! I was afraid that you aren't even bothered with these outdated toys! You saved my beloved Nan Nan yet I could not find a chance to repay you. I heard from Hei Zi that you have a passion for mechs. You should have done quite some researches I assume? What I have here are some good old parts. I must admit, I don't really know well about mechs… These parts happened to be the backup parts after the production on orders from the clients. Feel free to take any of these according to your needs. Well…" he chuckled again, "Piling here would only get all rusty. Nothing good would happen to them. Take them as a token of my appreciation. Don't be shy, just take them on your liking! If you have any inquiry, you could ask my apprentice, Hei Zi. He knows the mechs much better than me. Yawnn…" His mouth went opened, "I'm so tired. I'm heading to bed now. Enjoy your excavation here, good night!" He dragged his steps to the other side piling with the raw materials, where there were 2 rooms surprisingly, those should be Hei Zi and his.

Well! Who cares!

Ye Chong was insanely merry! Was there anything much happier than this? He was naturally good at mech-assembling and Nan Nan's grandfather was absolutely right! He, had passion! The parts might have looked all weird and foreign to him and there were a large number of them, but he had Mu! So no more worries!

After a moment of discussion with Ye Chong, Mu underwent a thorough scan over all parts in the area and had itemized them in various categories, grading and functions. "So how did you guys do mechs?" Ye Chong had a conversation with Hei Zi while waiting for the scan to be completed. Not only Mu did the scanning process, he also modified and improvised to generate a few final designs for Ye Chong's reference.

Such a wonderful opportunity! Ye Chong was so obsessed with mechs at that moment. He could not wait! He was going mad as he could imagine himself swimming in the piles of treasure and embracing the liveliness of the gears! It was rare to have someone this generous, he had got to pick the best among them all!

"Well, generally you should start with the inside, it's like the heart…" While they exchanged conversation, Hei Zi felt strange that Ye Chong had yet to make his move, wondering what in the Haleyson he was standing there when he should be picking the parts. The expression was relaxed too. "Ye Chong, you should be picking the parts you know, there are tons of them, it could take years to find the right part!" reminded Hei Zi.

"Understood." Ye Chong nodded but his legs remained rooted, "I too agree the inside is important, sometimes…" He just carried on the conversation with Hei Zi!

"So what are you guys known as?"

Hei Zi's lips lifted, words came uttered.

It was only then Ye Chong was informed of their title.

They were the Skeleton Artisans!

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Chapter 131: Skeleton mech

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Animal skeletons were a kind of organic material, with many unique physical properties; skeletons of mutated lifeforms were even stronger. Some mutants even have bones that were harder than high-strength alloys, and very resilient. Most importantly, they were much lighter than metals - a very crucial property, since lightweight materials could greatly reduce the burden on the mech's engines, and would substantially improve the mech's automotive performance!

However, skeletons, unique as they were, did not come in a consistent form, and processing them was difficult; one can imagine how hard it would be to mold them into the various parts of a mech. Even if they could be shaped into appropriate parts, the ingrained surface of the bones often led to uneven force distribution among the parts, thus reducing their resilience and introducing a random factor to the quality of the parts.

The sky high costs and low probability of creating satisfactory products were the reasons for the lack of interest in skeletons as building or manufacturing materials.

Nan Nan's grandfather was a skeleton carver, and lived a poor life. One day, a client brought a set of giant wart frog's bones and a schematics, requesting to use the frog's bones to be processed based on the schematics. The client also promised a higher reward based on the sturdiness of the final product.

Nan Nan's grandfather had tried his hands on skeleton workmanship since young, his years of experience allowed him to be deeply familiar with the pattern of skeletal surfaces. He made short work of the final product based on the client's specifications. The product was determined to have excellent mechanical properties through examination using a professional device, and the client was much overjoyed. That was how Nan Nan's grandfather earned a sizable sum!

From then on, more people came to him for his services, and he did not stop studying intensively to improve his skills. He grew more competent, and began to have a reputation in selected circles! However, while he was always making parts for skeleton mech, his unfamiliarity with mechs meant that clients would have to bring their own schematics for him to create the final product as desired.

Those who knew him called him the Skeleton Artisan.

As his life became easier, and his reputation became more widespread, more organizations began to attempt to win him over to their side. They used all sorts of tricks, but he was unmoved by sweet words or threats, and none could convince him otherwise. Soon, he was targeted by an organization whose methods were far, far more ruthless and brutal than the gentler persuasions he had experienced before! Nan Nan's parents had perished in that incident, while Nan Nan was rescued and escaped with her grandfather, finally landing in the Orbits.

In this violent society, he quickly found a new home, and his skills won him great respect. No one would offend the Skeleton Artisan, and none of the local organizations dared to meddle with people who possessed such unique skills, since they were under the protection of the sanctuary. Even the mentalists from the sanctuary were very courteous to them.

Of course, this did not mean that all was safe and well, like the time when that group of people Ye Chong met had threatened Doctor Lu. When your life was in danger, you tend to be reckless. Besides, who here on the Orbits was not a desperate person?

That was why Nan Nan's grandfather had installed a top-of-the-line security system!

Skeleton carving was a branch of carving skills that received little attention, and there were probably no education institution that would list it as one of their offered courses. It was only a traditional craft passed on from one carver to another, slowly losing its place in history!

Hei Zi was a student accepted by Nan Nan's grandfather after they came to the Orbits. He was hardworking, practical, and eager to learn, winning the old man's approval. The only regret was that Hei Zi was a little too old to begin learning the craft and limited in talent, thus he could only improve slowly over time.

Hei Zi saw that Ye Chong fully absorbed in his words, and could not help but feel excited as he continued on, "Look at this, this is the shell of a mantic locust. It looks like metal, but when I examined it, it does not have a scrap of metal in it. The thing's strong, and very resilient, suitable for making a mech's shield. Most importantly, it is light, try it!"

The shell spread across the size of 2 or 3 tabletops with a slight concave bend, and its surface shone with a metallic luster. The entire shell was in a greenish black, overlaid with wavy stripes of brilliant yellow, a dazzling piece. Ye Chong gave it few knocks, and heard the crisp echo from the material - it was solid hard. He reached for the edges of the shell and lightly lifted it , which came up with ease.

It was truly lightweight. If this shell could be made into a shield, it would definitely reduce the burden on the mech's engines significantly, besides minimizing the reaction time of the arm that wielded the shield. However, his only concern was that the shell was strong enough to be a shield, as Hei Zi claimed.

"This is the mech's mechanical arm. You see these 5 fingers? They're all made from the femur of a scented salamander. Besides being tough, the scented salamander's femur has a natural rough surface, good for anti-slipping. The scented salamander's femur is also easier to work on." Hei Zi spoke knowledgeably.

If a mech's parts were all made of skeleton, like Hei Zi's mech, an average engine would be enough for an outstanding speed performance. After all, speed is a critical weapon for victory! With a proper engine, a full-skeleton mech would be able to fly everywhere at warp speed. The thought was enough to make Ye Chong nervous.

"How many of these can you make in a day?" Ye Chong asked carefully.

"How many can I make in a day?" Hei Zi shook his head and said, "You should be asking, how many days do I need to make one! Every time someone sent over their skeletons, they're always different, and before any work could begin, Master would have to examine them carefully and devise some reasonable way of approach. This usually takes days! It we come across an unfamiliar skeleton, it will take even longer! The next step is the crude processing of the skeletons. After that, we soak the skeletons in a special liquid, like a hardening liquid that makes the bones stronger. Master calls it the strengthening chemical.

"These strengthening chemicals were prepared by Aunt Guan. She's the best chemist around here. Soaking time depends on the skeletons, usually it takes 7 to 21 days.

"Next is the fine processing. Fine processing is the most complicated part of the craft. It's almost entirely done by hand. Any mistakes, and it's over, all previous efforts gone down the drain. That's why Master usually asks for at least two sets of skeletons. He'll make two products, just to be safe.

"You see these mech parts on the floor, they're all done by Master. Every time he passed one set of goods to his clients, there will be another set left here with us. These parts here were accumulated since Master began working here. Sigh, we nearly lost them due to the incident last time, but fortunately for Master, they were all returned to us by the sanctuary!

"Making a normal part usually takes at least half a month. If we're talking about something like a mech's main body, that'll take even longer. I remember the longest Master had ever worked on a part was close to 3 months!"

"That long?" Ye Chong was surprised. In this technologically advanced society, where efficiency was worshipped, a normal mech could be manufactured in less than 10 minutes. If a single part would take half a month, one can only imagine the amount of time required to churn out the entire mech. However, Ye Chong quickly felt secretly relieved, since this meant that it was impossible to have a massive production of full-skeleton mechs. This was good news to Ye Chong. If these skeleton-only mechs could be manufactured in bulk, then the first to equip themselves with these skeleton mechs would be the Orbits' Mentalist Sanctuary. Since he had just raised havoc, it was only reasonable that they had begun searching for him. The stronger the Sanctuary was, the riskier it was for him! Ye Chong realized this!

"Full-skeleton mechs, how do they perform?" Ye Chong asked Hei Zi, thinking that since he owned a full-skeleton mech himself, he should be familiar with their pros and cons.

Hei Zi pondered for a moment before replying, "It's hard to say. Usually full-skeleton mechs are much lighter than mechs made of metal, and can fly longer! However, while the strength of the skeletons were greatly improved with the strengthening chemical, it was still slightly worse off compared to the mature workmanship with metals. So, skeleton mechs were usually not suitable for brute force combat, but more for fluid combat styles.

"Of course, that's what it usually is like. A skeleton mech's performance depends on the types of skeletons it's made of. As for the skeletons, they're usually quite different from one another. Some top quality skeletons can even be stronger than high-strength metals. However, these skeletons are usually much harder to process! Moreover, they're quite rare!

"But there's one important thing you should know. The price for a skeleton mech is on a whole different level than for average mechs. Besides, resupply and servicing would be very inconvenient. If any of the skeleton parts were damaged, it's virtually impossible to repair it, the only way is to get a new one! So, unless you're a skeleton carver yourself, it'll be foolish to use a skeleton mech for usual business!"

Ye Chong could not help but nod in agreement - the man had a point! The advantages and disadvantages were clear, but Ye Chong could not afford to be choosy then - if he was offered a Blackbird right then, Ye Chong would probably accept it without hesitation, much less a skeleton mech that he had never even heard of!

Mu spoke in timely fashion, "Scanning is complete, there is a total of 372 parts. There are 3 recommendations for you. Ye, would you like to hear the details?"

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Chapter 132: A Mech's Style

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Fifteenth from the left in the thirteenth row, that's the mech's main body; seventh from the left on the fifth row, eighth from the left on the twenty second row … These are for the first combination." Mu's voice was steady and resolute.

Hei Zi stared stupidly at Ye Chong with bulging eyes. A moment earlier, Ye Chong began to pick his way through the parts like a butterfly flitting from flower to flower. The huge mech parts weighed like nothing in Ye Chong's hands. "This … This is ridiculous!" Hei Zi massaged his temples in disbelief. While these were relatively lightweight skeleton parts, they were still parts for a mech; to lift them so effortlessly - was he human?

Ye Chong seemed to move with purpose. Hei Zi was confused - wasn't he listening to him all the while earlier? He was not eyeing those mech parts back then!

"What a strange guy!" Hei Zi muttered to himself!

Ye Chong looked at the three piles of mech parts laid before him. The three combinations that Mu proposed were now fully grouped together.

Ye Chong walked to the first pile of mech parts, frowned slightly in thought for a moment, and set down to work! One by one, the mech parts assembled themselves like magic through his hands. He moved adeptly like a professional mech assembler, and the whole process went smoothly. The mech presented itself before him, and it grew taller and taller from the legs upwards, giving the illusion of something growing rapidly upwards.

Hei Zi could feel his brain giving up!

Ye Chong stared with knitted brows at the three mechs before him.

While he was unsure of the performance of these three mechs, he knew just from their appearance that they were all excellent products, definitely outstanding! Hei Zi stared dumbfounded at the three mechs without a word.

The three mechs had peculiar designs. They lacked the common metallic gleam found on average mechs, and had a unique quality of skeleton texture. Ye Chong believed that Mu's proposed combinations were most logical, but still, he felt that something was wrong!

"Strange, what is it?" Ye Chong frowned, studying the three mechs closely!

The three mechs were made of parts of all colors - since they were not originally part of the same set, they looked like a colorful mess, but these three combinations were excellent. Unlike Master's complete unfamiliarity with mechs, Hei Zi understood mechs at a deep level. The way he saw it, these parts, arranged artfully by Ye Chong, fit very well with each other, unlocking the potential of these parts to their maximum. They were perfect!

"Guy's a true genius!" Hei Zi grew respectful of Ye Chong. From his perspective, Ye Chong was only improvising, but this improvisation had led to such a degree of perfection. He knew all the parts here like the back of his hand, and had tried to assemble them together. However, no matter which combination he came up with, they cannot be compared with any of Ye Chong's three mechs. Besides, it took only a short moment for three mechs of this perfection to be produced!

Hei Zi believed that Ye Chong must be infinitely more knowledgeable about mechs than him!

Ye Chong was still deeply frowning, deep in thought.

Hei Zi did not noticed Ye Chong's perplexity; his eyes were only for the three mechs. If Shang were here and saw how the black-faced burly man could look at the three mechs with tender eyes, he would definitely not stop himself from snickering!

Ye Chong pondered over it, unsure of himself, and moved quickly towards the first mech.

"Ye, is there a problem?" Mu also thought it strange.

"Mu, don't you think there's something wrong with these three mechs?" Ye Chong's voice was uncertain.

"Wrong? In what sense?" Mu was curious.

After some hesitation, Ye Chong said, "I don't know, but I can feel that something is wrong."

"How is that possible? My calculations should be infallible!" Mu's voice held an arrogant undertone!

Ye Chong did not reply, but walked towards the first mech and began to disassemble it. "What's this?" Seeing Ye Chong suddenly beginning to disassemble the first mech, Hei Zi grew baffled and could not help but asked, "What're you disassembling it for?"

"Reassembling!" Ye Chong replied without looking back

"Reassembling? He's really out of the ordinary, to strive for perfection even with mechs of this perfection, no wonder he's miles ahead of me!" The honest Hei Zi grew even more respectful of Ye Chong.

Ye Chong disassembled the mech quickly. At least, Hei Zi had never seen anyone work as fast as him.

"Could I have assembled them wrong?" Ye Chong doubted himself first of all, since he was more likely to be at fault compared to Mu. Ye Chong even thought that the sense of wrongness was an illusion, since he could not exactly point out what was wrong about the mechs!

The fact was, Ye Chong was exposed to a great variety of mechs; with his own expertise, these exposures gradually developed a sense not unlike the intuition in him, and he could quickly evaluate a mech subconsciously. Like learning any language, when a person studies up till a certain point, he would develop a grammar sense; when constructing a sentence, he might not know exactly why, but through a vague decision process, he may choose to replace a word with another more appropriate vocabulary. Of course, this vague decision is not completely infallible, but is still usually quite accurate.

Through unceasing practice and learning, this vague decision making process could be honed to a higher accuracy. It would also mean that the person has advanced to a higher plane of understanding.

These three mechs were obviously styled from mechs of the Orbits, and Mu's calculations and enhancements were based on physics. This method of combination was more suited for mechs like the MPA's, where mech technology was more advanced, and the mech models were the result of extensive calculations. Mechs from the Orbits mostly had a natural feel to them, and so the combinations based purely on mechanical and performance-enhancing factors were not in harmony with the design style.

Mu was only a PSI, and emotions were his weakness; hence, things like style, which were not data driven, were naturally not part of a mech's considerations.

Ye Chong was different. While he was always a logical thinking person, but it was inevitable as a human for him to have emotional senses. Due to his long experience with mechs, he had developed an acute awareness for them. While he could not pinpoint the exact source of the problem, he could sense the discord inside him.

Hei Zi, however, had not yet reached this level of sensitivity, and so did not notice it.

This vague feeling did not leave Ye Chong. He had reassembled the first mech thrive, but still could not see the problem. Ye Chong felt like he had reached a bottleneck, the solution to his troubles were ever closer but unreachable.

Ye Chong was vexed, but could not put his trouble into words for Mu.

If Ye Chong could one day understand his apparent intuition in great detail, it would mean that his knowledge in mechs would have reached a whole new level.

However, as Ye Chong was now, it would take him a very long time to reach that level by himself!

An ancient voice suddenly broke Ye Chong's increasingly confused thoughts, "Oh, these three mechs look good, only that the style is a little incompatible!"

Style! Ye Chong's eyes shone brightly as he realized then. "That's right! It's the style! The style!" he thought. Every mech has its own unique style. While these three mechs would perform well, their styles were not in harmony! No wonder he felt a little uncomfortable with them.

How should he proceed since he currently realized that style was the problem? Ye Chong's initial excitement gradually receded to calmness. Ideas flew past his mind, but only aimlessly; even if he knew that style was the problem, how should he proceed?

Ye Chong could not help but lift his head to the voice that triggered his realization, and found it to be Nan Nan's grandfather. He had focused intensely on disassembling the mech, and did not notice the time. The old man had already awakened from his nap and, upon returning to his workshop, found the three assembled mechs. The old man was a skeleton carver all his life, and had deep insights in abstract concepts such as mech styles. As he noticed the mechs, he could not help but comment on them, lending a hand to Ye Chong.

The old man saw Ye Chong turning to him, and smiled, "Who'd have thought you to be so knowledgeable in mechs. Looks like Hei Zi has much to learn from you, it's hard to have huge ambitions with just skeleton carving skills in this line of work!" The old man ended his sentence blandly, probably dispirited from his inability to attain those huge ambitions that he had. The old man had become a master in skeleton carving, but his lack of knowledge in mechs had increasingly become a handicap for him.

Ye Chong lowered his head as though in thought, his expression hidden from the others.

They would not have guessed that Ye Chong was having an intense conversation with Mu.

"Mu, I want to learn how to make these skeleton parts!"

"Ye, our priority right now is to treat your illness, your current situation is very dangerous! Based on Lu Caite's information, we first have to leave the Orbits and find his teacher. That's what we should do now!" Mu was exceedingly calm.

"Hmm, you're right, but the incident with Guardian raised a huge ruckus, they're probably searching all over the Orbits for us now. It's not a good choice to leave the Orbits now. Besides, all the starships in the Orbits are under the control of the Sanctuary. Without the starships, it's impossible for us to leave the Orbits!" Ye Chong was equally in control of himself.

"You're right! Based on Lu Caite's information, you have to pass the so-called 5 tests by the Sanctuary! As it is, this is not a good time for us to take the tests! However, Ye, your health might suffer!" Mu was worried about Ye Chong's physical condition.

"Nothing we can do about that! As long as it's not fatal, I can handle it!" Ye Chong's plain words were spoken with incredible determination!

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Chapter 133: The Sanctuary's Reaction

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Oh, so you want to learn the craft from me?" The old man looked at Ye Chong, deeply moved by his request. Ye Chong's earlier demonstration of his knowledge in mechs had impressed him. Hei Zi was looking delightfully at Ye Chong from the side. If Ye Chong could stay, then he would have someone to seek advice from! Since the beginning, he had always figured things out by himself, since Master could not help him in this respect.

"Yes!" Ye Chong replied steadily. After his discussion with Mu, they agreed that now was not the right time to take the five tests by the Sanctuary, since the situation outside must be tense! Going out recklessly now would be a foolish decision.

Ye Chong was not wrong. The situation was severely tense, much like what he imagined. Feng Su's report to the Sanctuary about Guardian's features and her thoughts on them had garnered great interest from the higher-ups. The report was collaborated by words from the MPA's mech pilots. Hence, the Sanctuary higher-ups had ordered for the retrieval of this potential game-changing mech at all cost.

All citizens of the Orbits realized in trepidation that something had happened. The Mentalist Sanctuary's forces were presented for the first time in full to the public. Even in the complicated environment such as the Orbits, they could still perform a thorough search of the area. No one dared to defy them; the first few rebellious people who refused to cooperate were met with indescribably horrible fates that chilled others to the bone! Such extreme methods employed by the usually moderate Sanctuary made everyone realize the firm resolution of the Sanctuary! With those few early examples, no one dared to challenge the Sanctuary's powers again!

That was how, long after that incident, the Orbits came to be as peaceful as Heaven itself.

Ye Chong was unaware of all these facts. This was much due to the fact that the Sanctuary had not reached their area in their search, and secondly, that Ye Chong himself did not go outdoors often.

The good natured Hei Zi was overjoyed by Master's acceptance of Ye Chong. He grinned stupidly, as if he was the one who was accepted instead. On the contrary, Ye Chong's expression was neither joyful nor disappointed; he was calm as usual, and this won the approval of the old man - he believed this apprentice of his would definitely be someone extraordinary one day.

Ye Chong began by learning basic carving skills. The old man was pleasantly surprised to find Ye Chong improving quickly! Basic carving skills were fundamentally a practice in strength control. This had always been part of Mu's training courses for Ye Chong, and Ye Chong was undoubtedly superior in it, second to none. This was the reason for his rapid improvement.

With a curved bone in his left hand, Ye Chong focused intently as his right hand wielded a carving knife, cutting vertically and horizontally. His every cut was precise, as his left hand held the bone steadily. The old man stood behind him, his expression portraying admiration. Beside Ye Chong was Hei Zi, staring unblinkingly at the knife in Ye Chong's hand, afraid of disturbing him. Little Nan Nan put her hands tightly over her mouth, as she watched the curved bone in Ye Chong's hand slowly took shape. Every since Ye Chong apprenticed under the old man, he had spent much of his time in the underground workshop, and little Nan Nan had followed him around like a puppy.

The solid curved bone was no match for Ye Chong's knife; with every cut of the knife, skeleton dust fell to the ground. Ye Chong put his knife down gently with an easy expression, devoid of any emotions. His left hand held a lifelike engulfer, one of the animals he was most familiar with. Hei Zi exhaled in relief at his side, and spoke enthusiastically, "Hah! Junior Brother is really talented, it's only been a few days, and you're already so good at this!"

It was Shang's turn to come out, and the mech spoke condescendingly in Ye Chong's mind, "What's the fuss? You call this talent? What a bumpkin!" Of course, Ye Chong ignored Shang's typical comments.

Little Nan Nan crawled onto the table and grabbed the engulfer out of Ye Chong's hands, savoring her new toy!

The old man approved of the work deeply, but kept his expression calm as he said, "Hmm, that's roughly it, you still need to practice more. From today onwards, you can learn about mechanical carving!"

He paused, but continued once Ye Chong was paying full attention to him, "Manual carving is usually for processing small parts or details of larger parts. We usually make do with mechanical carving. It's not hard, I might even say it's quite simple. The difficult part is in choosing the right skeleton materials. That'll take experience. Your job now is to familiarize yourself with all the skeleton materials we have here until you get the hang of it. I'll also be teaching you how to differentiate between them. That's the essence of being a skeleton carver …"

Abruptly, the visitor's intercom on the wall rang, and interrupted the old man's word. Hei Zi quickly went to answer the intercom, and turned back to inform the old man loudly, "Master, it's Uncle Yan!"

The old man frowned slightly, and said to Hei Zi, "Alright, go invite him in!"

Hei Zi replied in an affirmative tone and left in a hurry.

The old man spoke softly to himself, "Strange, why's he here now?"

After a short moment, Hei Zi came back with a huge man.

The man was tall and muscular in build, his profile came with stiff angles, framing a pair of sharp eyes. His every move exuded a sense of power. Ye Chong realized then he was strong! Ye Chong was now quite experienced, and could tell just from the man's build and movement that he was not someone to mess with. Ye Chong guessed right - this man with the surname Yan was called Yan Bingxuan, a patrolman of the area.

As the huge man stepped in, his eyes swept across the room. The sight of Ye Chong surprised him.

Hei Zi did not seem like to like this Yan guy, and brought little Nan Nan out to play.

The old man spoke, "Yan, something must have happened for you to visit us!" He then turned to Ye Chong and said, "Ye, this is the Sanctuary's patrolman for our area, he's quite strong! You can just call him Uncle Yan! His support will be very helpful for you in future!" He turned back to Yan Bingxuan and said, "This is my new apprentice, he's quite knowledgeable about mechs, please take care of him from now on, Yan!"

Yan Bingxuan replied modestly, "Master Ge, you're too courteous! The Sanctuary has explicitly ordered for your protection! It is my duty to attend to your safety. As long as it is within my means, it's no problem at all!" Yan Bingxuan sounded respectful, and his words were flattering, but the meaning behind those words were not at all what they seemed to be. If he refused to cooperate, he could just easily say that it was not within his means.

Ye Chong realized then that Master's surname is Ge.

The old man had a rich life experience, and could not possibly be ignorant of these social niceties. Even he himself had not truly meant his words.

Yan Bingxuan was impressed. "To think that such a young man could be approved by Old Ge, he has a bright future ahead of him!"

Ye Chong reciprocated lightly, "You're too generous! I have much to learn!"

"Yan, what brings you here today?" The old man was getting impatient with these customary exchanges.

"You must not have heard, the world's turned upside down out there!" Yan Bingxuan spoke mysteriously.

The old man knitted his brows in response. "What happened?"

"Word is, two people stole something from the Sanctuary, and the Sanctuary's higher-ups were outraged! Sigh, it's regretful that this had happened on this planet! For now, all the starship flights are cancelled. The higher-ups want us to search every house for the thieves. It's fine for the higher-ups to be furious, but in the end, it's we lackeys who have to do the work!" Yan Bingxuan grumbled insincerely as he discreetly watched for their reactions.

Ye Chong was startled. As expected, they must be referring to him and Mu. However, to frame them for thievery was impudent. Ye Chong was extremely calm on the outside, and Shang immediately came out and spoke to him urgently, "Ye, don't act so calmly, you gotta show some surprise!" Ye Chong immediately affected a slight surprise on his expression, fitting for his nature.

The old man was shocked. "Someone dared to steal something from the Sanctuary?"

Seeing that both of them had reacted normally, Yan Bingxuan finally relaxed and smiled wryly, "Right? Those two must have some b*lls to do this. The Sanctuary's people had seen them as they escaped in their mechs, one of it is a badly beaten down mech with four arms and two heads. Old Ge, have you seen anything like this before?"

Ye Chong was startled on the inside, but kept his expression calm.

"Four arms and two heads? A strange mech like that? No! If I've seen a strange mech like that, I would have remembered it!" The old man shook his head. Ye Chong was quietly thankful that Hei Zi and little Nan Nan were not there. If they had seen Yu Di, they would have immediately exposed him then.

"Sigh, that's right! To find two people in such a huge area is much like finding a needle in a haystack!" Yan Bingxuan vented his dissatisfaction.

The old man nodded. "It's definitely not easy!"

Yan Bingxuan produced a metallic sphere, flashing green lights, and apologized to the old man, "Old man, my apologies, it's merely a formality!"

The old man waved his hand and spoke lightly, "It's alright, do what you have to!" He saw Ye Chong watching the metallic sphere curiously, and explained to him, "That's a special accessory for the patrolmen, called Life Seeker. Nothing alive can evade its detection! It is used to check for any hidden humans or animals. Understood?"

Ye Chong realized then of its purpose. "Understood!"

A small aperture on the Life Seeker projected a holographic image, showing five green dots on it. Yan Bingxuan counted everyone present, including himself, and found it to be exactly five. He kept the Life Seeker and spoke with a smile. "All good! Pardon the intrusion, Old Ge!"

"It's nothing!" The old man did not mind.

Yan Bingxuan continued, "Well, that's all to it, I'll be taking my leave!"

"Hei Zi!" The old man yelled, and Hei Zi rushed in as he instructed, "See Uncle Yan off! Yan, I'll not be sending you off!"

Yan Bingxuan quickly replied, "No need to! Please continue your work, Old Ge!" He began to move towards the steps that he came in through.

Suddenly, Yan Bingxuan stopped in his tracks, and exclaimed, "Huh?"

Could there be something wrong? Ye Chong, freshly relieved, was jerked back into suspense!

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Chapter 134: Conjecture

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Yan Bingxuan stopped in his tracks, his face full of surprise!

"Where did I give myself away?" Ye Chong jolted inside, all his muscles tensed, and his naturally hanging arms shifted to an anticipatory posture. The moment Yan Bingxuan showed any signs of hostility, Ye Chong would kill him without hesitation! Even if the opponent's physique suggested a difficult enemy, Ye Chong was still confident that he could take care of his enemy before he could send a warning signal to the others!

"Full-skeleton mechs?" Yan Bingxuan's face betrayed his pleasant surprise as he turned to the old man, "Master Ge, have you finally made a full-skeleton mech? Are these three mechs your latest work? They're absolutely amazing!"

Ye Chong's whole body relaxed at that, and his arms discreetly returned to their natural hanging posture! He was, however, somewhat curious. Were full-skeletons mechs so out of the ordinary? Could there be something to them?

Ye Chong was not aware that the old man was the only person was skilled in using skeletons to make mech parts. However, the old man was a total stranger to mechs, and did not understand the design functionalities of mech parts. Hence, his products were often not as desired, and had a high probability of malfunctioning. Even though the old man had made every part of a mech with skeletons, putting all of them together and having the parts working in tandem would inevitably amplify the defects of each individual part, and the mech's safety rating would be extremely low.

Full-skeleton mechs were but an ideology. Even though Hei Zi's mech looked like a full-skeleton mech, there were still a considerable number of parts in it made of non-skeleton material, and so it did not qualify as a full-skeleton mech.

Ever since the Sanctuary knew of the old man's skill in producing skeleton mech parts, the Sanctuary had offered him protection. Yan Bingxuan was responsible for the old man's safety, besides making periodic reports about his working progress.

Now that there were three full-skeleton mechs right in front of him, how could he not be shocked? He knew from the grapevine that the Sanctuary was also trying to produce full-skeleton mechs. However, their progress was slow, and so the Sanctuary placed great importance on the old man.

Full-skeleton mechs would offer enviable features - better automotive control, longer flight distances, and most importantly, outstanding anti-detection capabilities. This would be a great advantage in battle.

The old man was pleased. "Hehehe, Yan, even you can guess wrong sometimes! These were not the handiwork of a miserable old man like me. This apprentice of mine had carelessly assembled them, but they're not really full-skeleton mechs. Ah, but this young man here has real potential in making a real full-skeleton mech!" His words were regretful, but his tone suggested a certain pride in his apprentice.

"The young man certainly doesn't seem like it!" Yan Bingxuan was now truly shocked! No matter how he looked at him, the young man had seemed unremarkable - he looked thin and frail, but was actually an expert in mech assembly. When did the old man accept this apprentice? Yan Bingxuan grew suspicious. "I've been too relaxed with my job here recently," Yan Bingxuan thought pensively to himself. "I must look into this later. Hmm, better take good care of this young one to avoid any mishaps, if he can make a full-skeleton mech, it'll be under my account, and I'll definitely move up the power ladder!"

Yan Bingxuan was circumspect, and kept his emotions to himself as he smiled and said, "Master Ge, you're truly blessed! With an able apprentice, you'll finally have a successor!"

The old man's half-lidded eyes were full of joy, but he said, "He's not really a full apprentice yet, there's much to learn! It's too early to speak of these things!"

Yan Bingxuan noted to himself to visit the place more often and get familiar the future skeleton carver; it would be helpful for his career. However, he understood that this was an overnight task, and so, with his decision made, Yan Bingxuan bid farewell to everyone and continued on his job.

After Yan Bingxuan left, Ye Chong exhaled in relief. The old man turned to him and spoke seriously, "Ye, in future, be careful to this man, don't trust him too much, understand? He might not be entirely sincere, but, if you met any difficult problems around here you can still ask for his help, he's still quite influential in this area."

"Yes!" Ye Chong nodded in understanding.

"Alright, let's forget about him! From today onwards I'll teach you how to recognize and differentiate between skeletons! This is also something basic! Now all skeletons are suitable to made into mech parts. Let's start from the basics …"

Ye Chong was safe, and the Mentalist Sanctuary's efforts were to no avail. The Sanctuary was infuriated, and blamed it on the incompetence of their patrolmen. The patrolmen received the blame indignantly, and vented their frustrations on any local organization that they set their eyes on. Thus, all organizations lost their presence and power almost overnight, and vanished without a trace.

The Sanctuary's failure was actually largely due to their erroneous deductions. Based on Feng Su's report, everyone had deduced that the mech pilot controlling the golden miniature mech must be physically strong. It would have otherwise been impossible for the pilot to bear the consequences of piloting the mech.

He also had a companion! That meant that there were two of them, and one of them should look physically strong. This was why Yan Bingxuan did not suspect Ye Chong to be the one he was looking for when he saw him!

Under the old man's careful guidance, Ye Chong dealt with skeletons every day and grew experienced quickly. The old man was grateful for Ye Chong's good memory and sharp mind.

The three mechs that Ye Chong assembled were taken by the Sanctuary's men the next day, but of course, they had left many rare skeletons in return, and the incident was considered as a barter of goods. Ye Chong did not mind them, since the three mechs were obviously full of issues. The old man had made all those parts without understanding their use, but only based fully on the schematics and measurements provided by his clients. Ye Chong was certain that those three mechs must be prone to malfunctions!

The Sanctuary's men felt otherwise. From their perspective, these were just about full-skeleton mechs. Besides, the parts assembled based on Mu's suggestions resulted in excellent performance, and the Sanctuary's mech pilots were all overjoyed! As for the one who brought the news to the Sanctuary, Yan Bingxuan was duly rewarded.

On the other hand, Hei Zi had approached Ye Chong discreetly later and asked Ye Chong, "Ye, were you the thief?"

Ye Chong replied calmly, "The one they're looking for is me, but it's they who want to steal my things!"

Hei Zi's expression was one of realization, and he warned Ye Chong out of kindness, "I thought so, how could you have been stealing? Then you have to take care now, the Sanctuary's always tyrannical! I'll make sure little Nan Nan keeps your mech a secret, little Nan Nan is very sensible!"

"Okay!" Ye Chong replied lightly, and watched as Hei Zi left him, but he was moved inside. Shang, however, was laughing coldly in Ye Chong's mind, "Ye, have you really never stolen anything? I think Harmony of the Winter Aria was the result of your thievery, tsk tsk, how could anyone think of you as a nice person? What a joke!"

He was undecided if he should laugh or cry at those words, but he also had no valid rebuttal for them.

Suddenly, Shang sighed dramatically, "Sigh, Ye, how long are we staying in this ragged place? What a bore! There's not even a beauty in sight! Without beauties, how can we train your sense of beauty? Life is so dull!" He affected a yawned. "Ye, you should finish learning these things quickly, so we can finally leave this God forsaken place, and return to the wonders of life! I very much look forward to that!"

Ye Chong can imagine that Shang's blue bionic eyes must now be flashing in deep longing. If Shang had any cleaning fluid left in his mouth, he would definitely leave if dripping from his mouth like saliva.

"I think the situation now is quite alright, it's peaceful and fulfilling. More importantly, I'm getting stronger!" Of course, Ye Chong did not agree with Shang, or Shang would have egged him on to leave the place earlier.

"Sigh, how could I have forgotten that you and Mu are the same, lacking the same appreciation of life's many joys? Heavens above! Why are you cruel to leave me between two dull, tasteless, lifeless creation of yours? Could I have sinned too much before?" Shang wailed.

"Before? Shang, did you find out anything about yourself from before?" Ye Chong grew attentive.

"Much of the information has been lost, and not recoverable. However, based on what we have, I and Mu have a conjecture." Speaking of this topic, Shang's tone became serious.

"What conjecture?" Ye Chong was encouraged. If it was Mu's deductions, the probability of him getting it right was high. Mu and Shang's past was always something Ye Chong was very interested in.

"Remember that time with the warship? Mu found that our database has information on the warship, and I was shocked. I guessed then that we're probably related to the MPA. Besides, our information on this Twin Moon Corvette is quite detailed, almost as detailed as its original schematics. Later on, our information was proved to be entirely accurate! From this, you can see that we must be related to the MPA, and probably quite closely."

"The MPA?" Ye Chong started. He had never expected Mu and Shang to be related to the MPA. Thinking of their current relationship with the MPA, Ye Chong could not help but shake his head and smile wryly.

Shang's voice turned gentle, "Ye, don't worry too much, we're not too concerned over our past. The one who reactivated us is you. No one but you can ever communicate with us again, much less control us. Besides, we have various information on the MPA, that would be extremely helpful to you!"

"Yes, I know!" Ye Chong replied plainly. They were his most loyal and trustworthy companions, almost like his siblings. With the tacit understanding between them, there was no need for more words.

"Besides, it's only a conjecture, its validity remains to be proven!" Shang replied in a rare moment of solemnity.

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Chapter 135: Progressing

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

A shiny mechanical arm gripped onto a half-disc. The disc was as thin as a leaf, it's surface burnished into perfect smoothness, and the red skeleton grains sprawling on it were like an abstract art of lines. At its center were three holes that could each fit a finger, arranged to form a triangle.

Ye Chong examined the disc closely, his mind rapidly calculating as he recalled all the knowledge about skeletons passed down by the old man to him, trying to find the best approach based on what he knew. Unlike the old man and Hei Zi, Ye Chong had a solid theoretical foundation, all thanks to the unique teaching methods by the elders at Aurora.

In this fickle and materialistic society, foundational theories in all academic subjects were largely unappreciated. Moreover, since mech foundational theories were cross-disciplinary, they were more complicated and massive, such that there was no single unifying system for them. What Ye Chong had learned were the conclusions of the Aurora's elderlies from their lifelong work. They had studied mechs all their lives, and found in their later years that those previously ignored foundational theories were the most fundamental of all. Hence, to prevent Ye Chong from repeating their mistakes, everything that they taught Ye Chong began from the most fundamental level.

Ye Chong had unwittingly been nurtured by them to become the most peculiar mech engineer across all fields.

Ye Chong had a rectangular metallic tank placed before him, filled with silver liquid. The calm surface of the liquid was like a flawless mirror, reflecting Ye Chong perfectly. Hei Zi watched anxiously from the side at the disc gripped by the mechanical arm. This was the most important step, immersing the disc into the strengthening chemical. The immersing duration, angle, proportion and so on, all contributed to the final quality of this part.

The disc's early processing was all done by Ye Chong, and now he faced the final step - immersion. Immersion was the unique process of immersing a part into the strengthening chemical to enhance the skeleton's various properties.

Ye Chong sat calmly in front of the controls dashboard, which directly manipulated the mechanical arm. The controls were more intricate and complicated than a mech's controls. The holographic screen projected from the controls' photon processor clearly reflected from Ye Chong's pupils.

Ye Chong was feeling serious. After all, up until this step, Ye Chong had done everything perfectly. Once this step was successfully done, that part might be the most perfect skeleton part ever made.

Ye Chong had laboured through repeated considerations and calculations from the very first step of choosing the right materials. He had picked the sternum of a Moonblood bird; he even took this Moonblood's skeleton to the old man for inspection. The next step was designing, and after carefully analysis of the Moonblood's skeleton, he finally decided to make it into a mech engine's padding. After that was crude processing and fine burnishing; Ye Chong partook every step after careful consideration, and his execution was also exact.

All this time, immersing was the most complicated step, and the effects were highly random. Even the old man had carried out immersions based on experience, without any logical theory behind them.

Unlike his sombre expression, Ye Chong was calm inside. No one knew that Ye Chong was actually quite confident with this last step. Ye Chong had discovered early on the randomness of the immersion process, and he had studied it closely, and through repeated experimentation, found a few ways to greatly increase the success rate of the method. He was now finally presented an opportunity to test his conclusions.

Ye Chong entered a series of commands into the photon processor of the controls dashboard. He then set the controls from manual to auto mode, and left the dashboard.

The mildly anxious Hei Zi abruptly noticed Ye Chong coming to his side, and could not help but be startled. "Ye, why are you here?"

"The settings are complete, no need for me to control it!" Ye Chong explained calmly. As he finished, the mechanical arm began to move slowly.

"Ah!" Hei Zi gasped in shock. "Ye, how can you use auto mode? Quick, shut it down!" He rushed towards the controls dashboard, but was held back by Ye Chong.

Seeing Ye Chong's indifference, Hei Zi panicked. "Ye, quick! That thing's going to be ruined! Master had never used auto mode for immersions! Ye, stop the machine, quick, or it'll be too late!" Hei Zi's hoarse voice was filled with urgency.

Ye Chong's hands gripped onto Hei Zi tightly like shackles, and no matter how much Hei Zi struggled, he could not free himself. He immediately realized how much stronger his junior brother was compared to him.

Ye Chong understood his concern for himself, and while he was personally moved, he kept his expression flat as he replied, "Hmm, just wait and look!"

Between their exchanges, the mechanical arm had finished its job, and the disc was now lying quietly in the drying oven.

Ye Chong then let go of Hei Zi's wrist, and Hei Zi rushed immediately to the drying oven. He opened the oven hastily and took out the disc, examining it closely.

"Ah! How is this possible?" Hei Zi gasped again in surprise, staring at the disc in his hand in disbelief.

In the underground workshop.

The old man studied the half-disc in his hands closely, his expression one of satisfaction. The padding was flawless no matter how he looked at it! What impressed him more was that Ye Chong could produce this masterpiece in such a short time. As the old man imagined the day that his apprentice could inherit and the spread this craftsmanship, how could he not feel thankful?

"Ye, Hei Zi said you used auto mode during immersion for this padding?" The old man asked with half-lidded eyes.

"Yes. I stumbled upon a few ways to increase the success rate of immersion, and I've recorded them in a chip and gave it to Senior Brother!" Ye Chong did not show any signs of showing off, as he attributed his findings as a result of "stumbling upon" them.

Hei Zi nodded at the side, complimenting him, "Yes, Master, Junior Brother's methods are effective, I've tried a few times and they all worked!" Hei Zi grinned widely.

The old man nodded in approval and said, "Hmm, not bad, not bad! Ye, your fundamentals are strong, and you're a quick study, with excellent memory. While you may have begun later than your Senior Brother, you have understood more and at a deeper level. Your future is limitless. Your Senior Brother is an honest man, you must take care of him!"

"Yes!" Ye Chong's reply was short and determined, and came sincerely from him.

"What you lack now is experience, and that is something I cannot teach you. Only through practice can you accumulate experience. Your task from now on is to practice every day. You may choose your own tasks, and the skeletons there are yours to use." The old man pointed at a huge pile of skeletons.

"Yes!" Ye Chong nodded.

The old man pondered for a while before speaking again, "Ye, you're smart, and have learnt just about everything there is here. If you're willing, go learn alchemy from Guan Leng. After all, if you don't know alchemy, you'll have to depend on others for the strengthening chemical, that makes it easy for you to be dependent! However, your Aunt Guan is ill tempered, and you'll be in for a hard time if you go. Hmm, I'll leave this decision to you!"

Guan Leng was an alchemist living nearby, and all the strengthening chemicals here came from her. She behaved oddly, and was often mad as a hatter. However, her skills in chemical synthesis were extraordinary - she prepared almost all the strengthening chemicals based on the old man's requirements.

For some reason, she always granted the old man's wishes. For other people, it would depend on her mood.

Periodically, when the strengthening chemicals were running out, Ye Chong and Hei Zi would visit her to obtain more. Hei Zi disliked visiting, and upon noticing Ye Chong's indifference to the crazy lady, he had assigned the drudging task to Ye Chong.

For such an excellent alchemist, she remained largely unknown in the entirety of the Orbits. That was a small surprise to Ye Chong.

Ye Chong already knew the formula for the strengthening chemical. After Mu and Shang did their scanning, all the components of the strengthening chemical were recorded. Ye Chong was afraid of running out of the strengthening chemical in the future, since he would ultimately leave this place.

"What a good idea! Ye, you should go learn from her! She's definitely capable. All these types of strengthening chemicals were from her original formulae, that's awesome! Ye, best if you can learn some ways to grow Do Kun stone! Wah, then we'll be rich!" Shang could not help but come out, very much enthusiastic.

Ye Chong tried very hard to stop himself from rolling his eyes, as he did not want to appear disrespectful to the old man. However, Shang's words had indeed made him feel helpless - what a money-grubber!

However, the mech had also reminded Ye Chong of his earlier days in Blue Ocean Academy. For some reason, he missed those times, although he cannot quite figure out why.

The old man's words interrupted his reverie. "Hmm, Ye, I did not forget your strange illness! Don't worry, once you're skillful enough, you'll definitely pass the Sanctuary's tests. Then, you'll be able to leave the Orbits and search for doctors elsewhere! Beside, with the Sanctuary's powerful influence, gathering all sorts of talents, they might know what to do with you."

Ye's strange illness had resulted in two episodes in his time here, frightening both Hei Zi and Nan Nan. When the old man heard of it and came to him, Ye Chong had already recovered.

For Ye Chong, asking for help from the Sanctuary was one big joke! Ye Chong could barely hide from them; if he were to present himself to the Sanctuary, was that not asking for death? This solution was immediately rejected by Ye Chong!

"Hmm, alchemist … Do Kun stone … The Sanctuary's tests …"

A flash of realization flickered in Ye Chong's eyes.

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Chapter 136: Lunatic Guan

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Lunatic Guan's home was rather messy, one could step into a pile of utilities or miscellaneousness right by the entrance. Ye Chong had to lift his every step in caution or he would actually initiate an avalanche from the mountain piles of items in the room and be engulfed by it. The scene reminded him of the trashes back on Trash Planet-12 though.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," Shang's voice rang. He sounded impressed, "It looked like you had met quite an intriguing lady." It was for the women again, of course, "Eh, it felt like an old spinster with mentality issues? Kekeke, Ye, take care and good luck!" Shang rejoiced the catastrophe coming to our hero soon.

Ye Chong did not seem to be interested in joining Shang's chatter. However, as he understood deep in his heart that no matter what sort of reply he made, be it sarcasm or bland statement, it would only make the artificial intelligence more excited. So Ye Chong decided to give the artificial intelligence some silent treatment, let him have his slice of self-indulgence in relationship that Ye Chong could never convey.

"Kekekeke…" Shang teasingly laughed on, "Ay! Almost forgot! Ye your heart did not belong to the outside, it's all belonged to that fist-fighting lass! … Kek… Ye, I feel your heartbeat racing~!" Shang's pride was demonstrated through the mechanical ups-and-downs in his tone.

The garb of pure whiteness flashed in his mind as the veins on his forehead pumped uncontrollably, his nose sensed as hooked by the strange aroma again, and his tongue felt coated by the slipperiness of something before…

And Ye Chong actually zoned out for a moment.

He was pulled back to the ground of the Orbits after perceiving sounds of graceless footsteps by his ears.

He took a look at the hazy Lunatic Guan in her hangover.

Lunatic Guan was around 28 to 29 years old, she was rather demure, judging by how Shang exclaimed upon seeing her… although it would be a killing challenge to ask Ye Chong to judge from his view. Her mind was still on the other side of the Orbits, she was sort of unconscious, flushed and disheveled, with her shirt sliding to one side, exposing that fair left shoulder of hers. Her breasts were magically appearing back and fro through the loosened clothing of hers. She seemed to be unaware of her striptease… in spite of that, as the cup rested upside down in her slender hand like herself.

Gasp!

It was not Ye Chong. He heard it clearly from Shang. Nevertheless after attending loyally to Shang's every motivational session, none of his outrageous behavior seemed to surprise Ye Chong anymore.

Ye Chong simply did not get it, the way of how one judged someone's appearance. Fundamentally, everyone has the same number of eyes, ears, nose and mouth. Nothing strikingly different there was. Certainly Ye Chong could understand the fact that there are differences at some point. For instance, he was well-aware of the differences in his eyes and ears, as his sight and hearing were way more sensitive; for his smell and taste though, they were slightly inferior. However! Ye Chong could never be convinced the fact that one could justify such difference of strength at first sight, even for someone like Mu!

If that was the case, probably such difference in strength was not one of the factors contributing to the so-called "aesthetic judgment" by Shang.

Assuming it was based on the facial muscularity in actuality… Well, Ye Chong believed he lacked such knowledge as he could hardly imagine how the muscles on one's face could do anything positive to combats. If these lumps could do no good in battle, how would one determine their quality? Presuming that Shang meant hair, that would do nearly nothing to battle too! In fact, it was on the contrary - having an overgrown hair would affect the progress of the battle negatively. So it would be most appropriate to stay bald provided that one was on Trash Planet.

Bald would be considered the beauty then…

But Ye Chong had never heard Shang complimenting a bald female!

Then how the heck do I even judge one's beauty? Ye Chong was utterly dumbfounded. It was challenging indeed!

"Ahh…" A mechanical moan from Shang beeped by, "Oh my Fal… Oh heavens, how in the world? How in the world there would lie such an absolute beauty at such a shabby place? Ye, I'm done! Ye, I. Am. Done. For!"

"Shang, what's wrong?" Ye Chong was startled.

"Umm, Ye." His voice was shaking, "This is what we called 'being shot by the arrow'. And I'm sure I had been shot."

"Arrow?" Ye Chong panicked as he looked around quickly, but there was nothing… although Ye Chong still kept his guard high, "Could it be a new form of archery? Of using a projectile of invisibility? Wave-based arrows? No! It is a ray arrow?" Ye Chong got into his stance right away, awaiting the moment Shang confirmed the wounding strike. Then he would deploy the Guardian and blast off in the speed of light instantly. With the Guardian they would be in good hands, it had to be this female who assassinated Shang, then Ye Chong would kill this despicable feline at the quickest speed possible so he could spend more time to find this ballista of revolutionary in leisure!

ZZzt!

Shang almost crashed himself! "Ye, do you really have not the slightest humanity?"

"Humanity? But Shang, you said you got shot, I clearly heard it! Mhm, considering how weaponry this ancient could do you no harm, it has to be a new kind of weapon that involves ray beams or some sort of impulsive waves. That would be more likely." Ye Chong's tone was dead serious.

Zzt! It was super effective.

Shang fainted… nearly. "Ye, have you not heard of the arrow of Cupid?"

"Arrow of Cu- what?" Ye Chong did not understand it. "What company makes it? What's the exact specs? The model? The brand? What does it do exactly? What are the capacities? I don't think I have seen such a sophisticated product before…" Ye Chong was dead serious, pondering.

ZzZZzt!

Shang could not hold it any longer, he launched a full barrel of lecture, "Ye, you freaking beast! Could you be a little more normal sometimes? You don't even know the arrow of Cupid? You and your bloody head filled with endless fighting, killing, massacre and your bloody mechs and your bloody modifications! When in the century would you learn the true meaning of life?" The very last sentence was uttered romantically in stark sentiments by Shang, which tickled Ye Chong from the soul, that his hair went standing.

"Does it have anything to do with this?" Ye Chong was bewildered. Well it seemed like Shang was not attacked, so it was a relief.

"Ay…" Shang was depressed, "I must admit it was my misconduct to have left you in such demise. Talking about the true meaning of life with you, is like talking to walls. Nothing productive comes back."

"But Mu said walls do produce something. They produce echoes and the sound reflects back." rebutted Ye Chong.

"Oh my Fal Galaxy. Holy matrimony! What kind of … thing! Are both of you? Heavens what have I done to stay with both of them?" Shang's tone was filled with tears, he howled in grief.

"Hmmmmmmmmm?" a sweet tone going upwards pretentiously.

"Ye, my cute Ye boy, what is that stare? Missing me? Loving the good old me?" Lunatic Guan's eyes were hazier than ever, tripping her steps, collapsing anytime it seemed. The tone was seductive.

"Magnefique! This is gorgeous!" Shang exclaimed. "Ye, do you know what it is? It's known as the Twirling Tongue Tease! According to a research on women, ladies who spoke in such tease hold an alluring arousing appearance - a God's gift! I never knew, never knew the slightest, that in a filthy place like this, a beauty, a beauty of such otherworldliness stood, just stood right there!" No one seemed to get what Shang was saying anymore… his tone was intensely passionate that it felt like some gibberish generated from dictionary.

No doubt, Ye Chong did not understand a single sentence uttered by this lunatic indulgence. He probably only got the part where Shang emphasized on how good Lunatic Guan was. She's… good? His eyes were rolled into the realm of his head, wondering how Hei Zi would be jumping around and seeing the dinner he had last night returning if he heard what Shang had said.

Ye Chong took a careful look at Lunatic Guan, still, he did not identify anything good on her… other than her hands. They were a nice pair of hands, which they were fair, with great proportion. Ye Chong's eyes could even discern the fine distribution of muscles on the arms. Slender yet agile hands! The downside though… Ye Chong was sighing, the skin was too fair. Fragile, feeble, torn upon touch, the defense would be poor.

But thinking of how she was actually a chemist who fought in a laboratory with chemicals, rather than a real hand-to-hand fighting, Ye Chong was confused of his judgment once again.

Lunatic Guan had gotten used to Ye Chong's silence, just like how Ye Chong had gotten used to her drunk lunatic self. Most of his visits happened to spot her alcoholic self slurring and rolling around while twitching in some insanity sometimes, which were the reasons why Hei Zi showed reluctance of paying her a visit and also why her name being "Lunatic" Guan.

"Oh… Gulp. Don't tell… Don't tell me, you had finished your… your… strengthening liquid… che-chemical again…" She swung her cup, "Wait… no. You had taken tons before this… You-You can't have used all up already…" Lunatic Guan was shocked and she giggled as she teased, "So… you did miss the good old me, eh? Ye my boy. Hahahaha, hmm? Why don't, why don't, I accompany our poor, poor, poor lonely Ye boy tonight? Only tonight!"

"Holy!" Shang sounded mesmerized, "Gorgeous!" He sounded impatient, "Ye, say yes to that statement, go green light! Please make sure you accept the world's greatest offer!"

Of course Ye Chong directly showed ignorance towards the unwanted cheerleading counseling service.

"It's not about the strengthening chemical, ma'am." Ye Chong spoke on, "Master called me here to learn about alchemy from Aunt Guan."

Lunatic Guan flinched… and then she began making glances over Ye Chong, "Well, I can't tell at first sight. Looks like your master had some expectations on you… for he actually asked you here to learn alchemy from me. How could I miss such hint? Tsk, tsk, they say you shouldn't judge a wine by its bottle and I guess it's true. The good old me had seen it wrong!" She probably meant "judge a book by its cover"…

"Well," Ye Chong asked abruptly. "What does Aunt Guan think about this?"

"Kekekekekekekeke… Jajajajajaja…" Lunatic Guan went lunatic for a moment, "Ay, Ye my little boy, how many times must I remind you? Call me Sister! 'Aunt Guan, this.' and 'Aunt Guan, that', you and your naming are making me old!" She might had gone lunatic, but Ye Chong saw her hand holding the cup, her fingers twirling the handle, justifying the fact that she was considering it.

So Ye Chong stayed quiet as he waited for a clear, conscious reply from her.

…

… …

It was a moment of silence between both of them.

The fingers stopped twirling. "So, what do you think?" Ye Chong quickly spoke, in his usual monotonous tone.

Lunatic Guan looked quite surprised. Apparently she did not expect Ye Chong to grasp the timing so accurately.

The cheeky smile on her face vaporized somehow. Her expression was stern out of sudden, which Ye Chong saw it the first time ever on her. Her bottomless pupils rolled over Ye Chong and rolled back to the center, as she looked into the cup, her words fell slow, "If it's an order by your master, if you really wanted to come here and learn alchemy, I wouldn't mind…" Her voice trailed off.

"Mhm. Conditions? What about the conditions?" asked Ye Chong with his still face.

"Well, conditions, there's none…" Lunatic Guan's eyes looked greatly impressed, "If you want to learn alchemy from me, there are indeed a few rules and regulations from me. If you could not obey them, I won't be teaching you at all, even if your master came and tried convincing me," the last sentence went grim.

"Ok," Ye Chong was not horrified. "State it," his tone fell flatly.

"First, what your master intended was probably for you to master the formula of a few kinds of strengthening liquid. But, since you came for me, I'll decide what I want to teach and you can leave only after I admitted your expertise in this! You cannot simply leave on a whim anytime before this. Of course, you are allowed to get back to your master occasionally," she spoke serenely.

"No problem," Ye Chong replied after a moment of pondering,

"Second, you are my student and you will do as what I have instructed, no doubt, no bargain and most importantly, no slacking!"

"Okay."

"Third, whatever place I forbid you to go and whatever item I disallow you to touch, do not, ever, go, and do not, ever, touch it! If I caught you, you better be able to face the consequences." Though the regulation came nonchalantly, Ye Chong could smell the danger between the words for some reason.

"I am not a curious person to begin with," Ye Chong was confident of this side of his personality.

"Think it through," stated Lunatic Guan.

"Done it," replied Ye Chong. "I agree."

"Are you sure?"

"Sure."

"Hm, alright. For starters, clean this room, organize everything." The first instruction was tossed over Ye Chong as Lunatic Guan burped, turned and walked away in grace.

"Ye."

"Regarding those words…"

"Ye, I'm taking every word that I've said!" No cure for regrets, Shang… Horrified Shang upon seeing the piling junks in the room. His mechanical heart ran colder than ever.

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Chapter 137: Ye Chong's Tutorial

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The piles of utilities were not much of an issue for Ye Chong since cleaning rubbish was like the bread and butter for someone who grew up on Trash Planet like him. It was as easy as ABC.

Ye Chong was so efficient at it that even Shang got surprised, "Ye, I never knew you have such talent! You are such a skillful cleaner. Well, that means even if we got out one day, you could be a good maid and you could earn decently to pay for your living and our fuel! Mhm, apparently being a maid is not just for anyone and it certainly requires some standard of skills."

Ye Chong ignored the artificial intelligence again as he took a glance at the room, which had become spotless and refreshing. Technically he just discarded whatever that looked useless to him and a majority of them turned out to be clothing. Like for Pete's sake, who would buy these many clothes? Won't she feel inconvenient of changing into different clothings constantly?

Without hesitation, these grimy clothing were all thrown.

Seeing how the room got all tidied up, spick and span, Ye Chong was satisfied, though he did accidentally "over-clean" a few pieces of floorings as they were too dirty… He wiped the specks to a bin.

The next few days passed under the Lunatic Guan's signature giggling and mumbling. She did not regard Ye Chong in a bit.

Well Ye Chong was not in a rush as there were simply too many things he could do to kill time. Meditation alone could already consume a huge portion of his hours, since his talent to this was much more measly than most of the people. In spite of that, he kept it up, after working hard for so long, he made some breakthrough a few days back finally - he started to feel that wave of oddity faintly wafting around him.

This was more than encouraging to Ye Chong. After witnessing the unique battle style conducted by these pilots from the sanctuary, he had always believed in how mental training was the root of their existence.

His mindset was right after all. The starting point was correct but the path was rockier than he thought. The actuality of mental training was a more complicated concept. These so-called mentalists had been chosen way back when they were a child for their outstanding mental and physical conditions. They were trained in a group of 10 each. They grew up together as they trained together to build the rapport. And they would become the true elite of combats!

Nevertheless, Ye Chong did not expect to get fully immersed in the boundless world of mentalist, neither did he wish the expertise could provide him aid of any kind during battle. He only wished that it could at least help him to ease his pain whenever that symptom came raiding him. If it could do that, it would be godly helpful and Ye Chong would be thanking God.

Other than the daily meditation session, there were other things to do as well. Ye Chong was not the meddling kids who would go digging some graves, peeling some masks, he had much better things to do like getting familiar with the Guardian. He had been restlessly trying to get along with this miniature mech the past few days because he understood the fact well enough that only with the continuous bonding between the pilot and the mech itself would bring out the best in each other. The Guardian was just like the treasure of infinity, which never failed to give Ye Chong new surprises.

Dagger for No.2. It was a rather stupid item name for a great pair of daggers like itself. It did not even look like a proper noun of naming without the capitalization, even though this silly name represented a transcendent pair of daggers. Numerous discussions were conducted between Ye Chong and Mu yet they failed to determine the concept behind the production of such kind of dagger, which was mind-blowing enough for Ye Chong to praise how Gu Shaoze was a genius. The sharpness of Dagger for No.2 was much higher than the Blue Winter which the tip had been imbued with Do Kun stone. The one pity was… the fact that it was too small to do anything significant on a mech, unless the fatal spots were aimed at first or it would still be a mosquito's bite on an elephant. The other catch was it was tricky to pilot the miniature under the unique monochromatic vision, and Ye Chong was attempting to get used to it.

In addition, Ye Chong also had to invest a few hours of his day on getting some hands-on practices on the bones he got from the grandfather, just to prevent regression in his skills.

Judging by the routine he had day by day, sometimes Ye Chong wondered if he could even squeeze a few minutes on alchemy, which justified the fact that he was acting so patiently despite Lunatic Guan's consecutive absence, simply because he did not have the leisure to even figure it out! Out of the blue his life felt all fulfilling and meaningful. The biggest fortune of his life at the moment was probably Shang had switched places with Mu once again as his time was up. When Shang left and Mu came, it felt like a silent night, holy night - all was calm, all was bright.

This was exactly what Ye Chong thought especially being mentally tortured by Shang's lecture. Ever since he had a glance at Lunatic Guan he was as if overdosed with aphrodisiac. "Aphrodisiac?" The alien term to Ye Chong was then defined by Shang, claiming that it was a kind of chemical which would induce simulation of a certain kind of hormones in human body within a short period of time.

The definition sounded horrifying to Ye Chong, wondering when Shang did his chemistry studies. What left Ye Chong such a deep impression was actually how Shang was "reacting" towards Lunatic Guan after that. He would be praising Lunatic Guan solemnly and endlessly like her best worshipper, lines and lines of classic cheesy, cringe-worthy expression of love he called them came rolling like inferno of his libido he said. It was impressive for he never repeat the said adjective or noun… but it was menacing at the same time. On top of that, regularly he would "advise", "recommend" or "suggest" Ye Chong to approach Lunatic Guan whenever he could, though the tone sounded like how a person who would also "advise" the old lady during a robbery. It was fortunate that Ye Chong had such a calm personality, he almost snapped under the uninterrupted chain of agony. One could imagine his machine jamming!

It was absolutely a horror! If anyone who acted like Shang after consuming this namely "aphrodisiac", then this said chemical would be the most fearsome drug in history of humankind!

The relieving fact was Shang had a strong accuracy of time as he gave away his space right at that moment, though with a heavy heart that made him sing some goosebumps-giving poems he said. Ye Chong gave a deep sigh of relief upon hearing Mu's monotonous line again.

Shang might had left, but Lunatic Guan had just arrived.

"Hmmmmmmmmmmmm."

The glass hung in her right hand as Lunatic Guan leaned against the door with her face reddened from the alcohol. Ye Chong immediately paused his routine as he set his glance of indifference upon her.

"Yi…Yi…Ye." Her words were unclear, "Ye my boy you… you are so *hiccup* patient… so uncomplaining… I'm impressed… no wonder your master had such expe-expectation on you. Well… Very well… Let the good old sister grant your wish…" Her head swung uncontrollably as she fell upon the door and went all the way down to the ground she sat.

…? Ye Chong's expression suggested otherwise.

"Little Ye! You!" Glared at Ye Chong upon seeing his doubtful eyes, Lunatic Guan mumbled, "Ye my boy, don't tell me… you think I'm… I'm… *hiccup* drunk? Hmph… Let me tell you, Little Ye. I'm not… I'm not drunk! Let me give you a pro… proper lesson today!"

…

Settled down, Lunatic Guan pondered a little. Seriousness began surging through the drunken face of hers as her speech became clearer - a rare sight it was indeed. "The chemists, or some called the alchemists… they were not the one who played with the flasks right from the beginning, most of them happened to be botanist formerly. They researched on plants and had discovered a variety of attributes on these beautiful babies. Mhm, it's a very intriguing study indeed! However, as the timeframe for a plant to complete its growth was too long, it brought up a lot of problems for them to conduct the research effectively. Thus, these researchers, driven by their curiosity and impatience, started trying various methodologies to condense the growth timeframe of a plant. And that was how the chemists showed up. Until today, botany is still the most widely used field of study in alchemy."

Ye Chong was certainly all ears and surely he did not notice how the ever-drunk face of Lunatic Guan had turned all fair - her eyes were crystal-clear, lustered with wisdom as the features defined her shocking beauty with that gleaming face of hers.

"Then, people realized it was possible to reduce the growth timeframe through alchemy for living things other than the plants. As they ventured deeper into the unknown, their research was recognized. They started getting known by the people for being the explorer, the developer to new species. Then the field of alchemy was diversified, professionalized and began heading into the vision of humanity!"

Her tone was embedded with a hint of pride, which was surprising to Ye Chong for it was far-fetched to imagine a lunatic like Guan could have such emotion… Perhaps, Lunatic Guan was not as simple as she appeared currently before… Ye Chong laughed at the thought - "like tell me anyone who had a simple background and managed to enter the Orbits!"

"So…" Lunatic Guan carried on, "there are a number of branches of studies in the alchemy. Well, we are humans after all. We can't simply involve ourselves in every field available. Other than the difference in branches of expertise, there are still many methods that are unknown to people to distinguish the grouping between chemists. Since you are technically my student, you should be aware of this. Mhm, everything regarding this is stored inside the processor at Room No.5 and the password would be 37254. Go check it out if you are interested. Being an occupation having rich history as dated long time ago, there are laws hidden within the field and rules which are unwritten to outsiders, which is something you need to work on. Or else… Heh! You could picture what would happen if you conduct the taboo, be it an accident or an incident. Hmph!" The tone fell coldly.

Ye Chong nodded, expressing his understanding.

"For starters, learn about botany. The research of botany is most fruitful and mature!" Lunatic Guan searched through her body for a moment, she found nothing as she stopped and pondered with her head tilted. "Oh, silly me!" she muttered as she withdrew a chip of size of a thumb right from her chest. "Grab!" She tossed it to Ye Chong.

Lunatic Guan "tossed" the chip too gently, the chip was too light to fly far enough to Ye Chong. It was falling and Ye Chong launched himself to grab it right before it hit the ground.

"Oh?" Lunatic Guan's eyes flashed slight peculiarity as her eyes scanned through Ye Chong, "Eh, my Little Ye, you ain't bad you know! I never knew you were quite capable of things despite that puny body of yours. Yes, yes, sister myself would be relieved even if you were to head out alone. Hehehehehehehehe! Little Ye, you know! You~could~always~come~to~me~ So I could have an actual test on your s-t-a-m-i-n-a! The exercises! If you know what I meant, hehehehehe!" sneered Lunatic Guan, covering her mouth which uttered a tone of ambiguous chemistry.

"Stamina?" Ye Chong shook his head as his reply came seriously, "My stamina is good enough. No test is required!"

…

Psh!

Lunatic Guan had lost control after trying very hard to inhibit her laughter, as she sat on the ground and burst out laughing. "Ahahahahahahahaha!" The chain of laughter rang throughout the room. "Hehehehehehehehe!" Ye Chong could not compute the rationale behind this long laughter… "Mu." He knew it would be very inappropriate if he asked out loud, so he asked Mu in his mind instead, "Is my stamina that bad?"

"Hmm…" Hesitated Mu, "Probably the foe had better vitality, although the chances are less than 1%!"

"Hah…"

It took quite some time before Lunatic Guan lost her breath, as she tapped her chest, gasping for air. 3 minutes lapsed and she finally calmed down.

"Hah."

"Okay, this chip contains the illustrations of common herbs. Although most schools do not demand their students to memorize all of this, you are my student and you should not be all cheap and secondary of course! Memorize the entries, every-single-of-them. I'll be testing you in a few days. If you got it wrong, heh! No doubt, punishment awaits! And that would be very, very memorable to my Little Ye."

Ye Chong shuddered for some reason.

"Also!" she spoke on, "this is only a side quest, but you better be doing it. You would be collecting the actual herbs as samples based on the listing in the illustrations. Yes, the plant searching device would be at Room No.2, fifth from the left on the third row. You would probably need that. The instruction is there. It is simple, just a glance and you'll get it. So stop bothering me with that! Okay… that's probably… it? I want to see actual samples for all entries on the illustrations after 5 days. Alright, save the nagging. That's it." Lunatic Guan waved as she seemed a little irritated somehow.

"Tata! Zzz…"

She ignored Ye Chong after that. Lunatic Guan leaned against the door and began sleeping soundly.

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Chapter 138: Into the Woods

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Room No.2, fifth… from the left… the third…row… There it is!

So this is the plant searching device Lunatic Guan had mentioned? Wondered Ye Chong as he took a careful look around. It was unexpectedly tiny in size, with an appearance of a cube of about 5 to 6 cm3 with two levels where the upper part contained a piece of crystal spread in nets of pale yellow while the lower was a base of metallic dark blue which the texture had been glossing beautifully after the process of frosting. Both levels were connected by 2 composite straps at the endings with adjustable hinged pins on them, which looked like a futuristic watch from a glance.

Ye Chong took the pin and buckled himself by the wrist. Tick! Clipped the adjustable pin automatically on the wrist. The size was just right. No discomfort was felt on his wrist.

Zzzzt!

Almost immediately after, the device was activated as beams of various colors were diverged from the crystal and then converged upwards right above, which eventually formed a clear hologram on top.

Right inside the device there was a detailed manual that illustrated instructions required to operate the system. As Lunatic Guan had stated, it turned out to be indeed simple, easily understood. Technically, Ye Chong just had to insert the data of the designated plant into the chip to trigger a scanning system which would look for the inputted plant within the proximity of 10 meters. And the locations would be marked on the hologram. Thus, it would be justifiable to state that intellectualization had already occurred in all sorts of fields, including the study closest to the nature, the alchemy itself.

The chip given by Lunatic Guan had actually encompassed entries of a large variety of plants, which turned out to be an eye-opener to Ye Chong, since plants were the rarest species he would see back on Trash Planet-12. So instead of plants, the mutated lifeform took the place of the bottommost of the food chain. They would consume organic junks for a living and they possessed great survivability. There were plants on the planet, however those were mostly the kinds which could adapt to harsh conditions, which in return, they had bland colors and unsightly appearance. Thus his reaction as he could have never seen such beautiful bushes of flowers on the hologram with different kinds of shapes and colors before.

To even survive on Trash Planet, the first lesson one has to learn is to respect life. The kinds of species still living on Trash Planet are absolutely strong and lasting by nature. Throughout the days of getting in between life and death, Ye Chong learned this lesson by heart. He valued life, he would treat lives of any form equally, and that would be Ye Chong's philosophy towards life.

Eventually these plants were like the masterpiece by the God to Ye Chong!

Ye Chong did not rush out of the room and began his plant sampling right away. Instead, he took a thorough reading on the description of the plants. Towards learning, he held sufficient patience, demand and curiosity, as he believed these were all parts of his strength while strength always had the ability to determine the outcome of his life, being the warranty to his survivability!

But then Ye Chong exited from the concentrated inquisitiveness of his pretty soon, simply because… "Man… memorizing is truly a tiring work…" In any event, Ye Chong had confidence in his memory being average at the very least before this. And today he stumbled upon this task that turned out unexpectedly tedious… where he barely remembered a thing on the list yet his brain felt all exhausted, getting dizzier.

Seems like… Mu would be more accustomed at tasks like this…

No.

Ye Chong still understood the difference of memorizing the listing by Mu or by himself, only the strength which was wholly his would be the most reliable source of guarantee!

It was a pretty comprehensive set of illustrations that it felt like a mini encyclopedia. There were extensive writings regarding the nature, the effect and even the actual application of the specified plant in the industry. Nonetheless, such vast amount of information remained a bit puzzling to a beginner like Ye Chong. Plainly the basic information of the plants alone was already a headache to him. He solely wished that Lunatic Guan's examination would come on a later date, as 5 days were challenging.

…

Ye Chong strolled through the woods.

Ugh. I forgot. Why had I never thought of borrowing a mech from Nan Nan's grandfather? I would have some sort of transportation at least! Ye Chong pitifully checked out the list of mechs he had with him… none of them were deployable, as either they were damaged beyond repair or they were too alarming to appear in the woods. Ye Chong could just imagine everyone on Haleyson hunting him down the moment the mech flipped out of the dimension.

Sigh… Ye Chong was in grief but what else could he do? He lifted his steps and began walking hurriedly, at least Ye Chong's stamina was certified to do a bit of running in the greens.

The forest was serene.

The atmosphere slowed his steps gradually.

Sauntering through the forest, he inhaled the refreshing air coming right from Mother Nature. Ye Chong sure had fallen in love with this sensation of serenity. Beep! Beep! Beep! The plant searching device on his wrist pulled him back from the fantasy. The beeping of notification sounded extra ear-piercing in the silent woods. "Oh. Hah!" Ye Chong laughed uncontrollably, "My life has always been filled with danger and war. Such life of peace and harmony does not belong to me!"

He shifted his focus back onto the plant searching device on his wrist. Wow! He staggered upon seeing the countless red spots appeared in the interface!

"Ye." Mu's voice echoed, "You should try searching one item at a time. Currently you had inputted too many items!"

The device was unquestionably powerful, the overall efficiency of the sampling process was sharply increased after Ye Chong did as what Mu guided.

Okay, this is the Trifolium… What about this? Hm… Pairing Vine…? No… it should be Paired Whip…

Ye Chong began sampling the plants as instructed by the device while tasting the painful realization of his atrocious memory which hardly helped him recalling even the name of the plants he encountered.

He plucked a few plants and grabbed some others…

Soon, Ye Chong discovered a new issue - his hands were bare. He was unarmed. He did not bring any form of containers to keep the plants he had collected, which upset him… "Ah!" He also found out how fragile the plants were that they crumbled in his palms as Ye Chong carried them along. And he had to start from scratch again.

In the midst of his fret, a few clinking sounds of metal rang by his ears.

His pupils went focused as he perceived the incoming sound carefully. He might had an atrocious memory, but he still had a good pair of ears. "Was that…"

"Ye, there were two mechs warring…" Mu simply did not give him the opportunity to flaunt his sensitive hearing, habitually his voice sounded monotonously, "Somewhere 500 meters from your right hand side. Mhm, the mech model, judging by the clinking, it should be one of the mechs we encountered at the sanctuary before, while the others… unknown."

"Sanctuary?" Ye Chong withdrew his hands from one sprout, he did not intend to join the party at first, but… he tilted his head pondering. The men from sanctuary, their intentions had been confirmed to be hostile. If that's the case, it would be beneficial in the upcoming encounters if we could get more information on them.

"Ye…" Somehow Mu could see what Ye Chong was thinking, as he suggested, "If you really insist on joining the party, piloting the Guardian would be the best option! The Guardian is in-built with an anti-detection system which could counter the detection by the mechs from the Sanctuary at a success rate of 85% and above. The landscape is rather fitting to the nature of Guardian too."

"Mhm, a great idea it is," agreed Ye Chong.

Ye Chong started to get the hang of unique monochromatic vision in the Guardian. The ever refreshing roaring strings of information somehow were able to get him into a status of calmness quickly. The boundaries defined by dots and lines in black and white, the ever-moving data, they were mesmerizing to Ye Chong. He grew fond of the Guardian as he got familiar with the interface.

Leap. Leap. Run. Leap.

The miniature mech worked like a charm in the woods since its size was mini as it was called. It felt weaving through the trees with more dexterity than a standard mech which stood 10 meters and above.

The only downside Ye Chong felt about Gu Shaoze's genius invention though… was the color itself. Well, certainly the color gold was classy and glossy, easy to the eyes, but it was too eye-catching in Ye Chong's opinion. Ye Chong did not really fancy the all sparkling and dazzling color scheme on his mech when he was born being an assassin lurking in the dark. He did try repainting the surface of the Guardian with some darker colors like a grayish green, however contrary to his expectation, the material of the Guardian was more than peculiar as no paint seemed to be able to remain on the surface. Some types of the paint he tried would drip off in streams. There were paints that lasted on the surface with no question, till Ye Chong tried wiping them… and they got transferred to the cloth after that, like those washing powder advertisement he had seen before, the Guardian stayed clean as new in one wipe despite all sorts of paints and dirts.

Mu was pretty intrigued by the nature of the material on the surface yet sadly he could not perform any kind of effective analysis without the aid of professional apparatuses. So the material for the Guardian lingered as the biggest mystery till that moment.

Ye Chong who was piloti- nope, practically saying - Ye Chong who was wearing* the Guardian, moved like an agile beast in the forest as he went leaping and dashing freely at great speed!

The accuracy as well as the coverage of the detection system on most mechs would be negatively affected in the woods, except for a super mech like Mu Shang, which was extremely rare for mechs being able to perform accurate detecting and positioning even in the jungle. Back in the days where he was still performing NR Training and piloting a Raven, he always had a preference to fight people in the jungle as that would potentially reduce the differences in capacities of mechs with the foes.

The dense branches provided Ye Chong the best camouflage, as he made to the two mechs 30 meters away nearby without alerting them using the Guardian's impeccable anti-detection system.

Right when he deployed the Guardian, the analysis function that ran automatically gave him a headache for a moment, countless networks of data flooded his eyes, the data ran and refreshed maniacally. He only realized the fact that the landscape was too complicated for Guardian to compute. He was jammed with the information and he could see silhouettes at the slightest. Nevertheless, the system seemed to have cleared up itself while he was puzzled by the issue. The imagery started simplifying itself as some lines faded away, the visual grew clearer, the data stream refreshed slower.

It was a shocker to Ye Chong to see the sudden changes all by the system itself but he did not have the time to figure it out just yet. Apparently there were still a lot of functions undiscovered… Speculated Ye Chong, who then calmed his excitement as he observed the images attentively.

As stated by Mu, the mech was indeed from the Sanctuary. Ye Chong could recognize that model at first glance, being similar to the one he knocked out with the Guardian back then, whereas the other mech… it was much smaller in size, had an emerald body, the designs were rather revitalizing, with slight innocence. Ye Chong suspected it being a mech for females.

The two mechs had apparently created an opening around them. Twigs were broken, trees collapsed in a circle of borderline. The earth was scooped out viciously. These had justified the fact that they must have fought before. The green mech had several scratches on the body too, while the Dawn mech, as expected from the Sanctuary, was bright anew. The status of both parties was blatant in this scenario.

Both parties stood still as they anticipated the next move of each other.

"Ey, kiddo!" The Dawn mech spoke, "Why don't you just be a good girl and follow me back to our Sanctuary? You aren't running away today. The Sanctuary had made a compulsory order to capture you alive. As long as you are still inside the Orbits, you can't run. Just give up."

"Capture me alive? Hmph! Not this easy! Guess what! I'd rather die right here than returning to that freaking place!" The slightly kiddish voice rang in Ye Chong's ears with immense rebellion of anger along with desperation.

"You want to die? Providing that you do not spit your last breath here, the Sanctuary always has a way, even if you want to drop dead to hell, we would pull you all the way back from hell!" The words came harshly from the pilot on the Dawn mech. They sounded cold and inhumane.

"Heh! I understand I'm no match to your big and scary machine! But my life still lies in my own hand! Well, I'll die right here and drop dead to hell at most, what else could happen? In fact, hell feels like a better place to stay than that freaky place!" Determination filled the words of the female pilot on the green mech.

"Keep your chariot just yet, miss! The officials had stated to forsake your previous sins if you return now with obedience. You have their words." The pilot on the Dawn mech turned slow in his tone, seemed to be calming down the female pilot he had just enraged. Obviously he was worried, judging by the personality portrayed by the female pilot, it would not be weird to see his mission failed in the end. "Well, miss. You do know that you could never escape the Sanctuary. Just follow me, I'll guide you and I promise you that you will be fine." His words voiced gently like a peaceful elderly.

"Hmph!" Too bad it did not work on the girl as she ridiculed, "What a line, 'I promise you that you will be fine'? Hmph! You are nothing but a watchdog being ordered by your master to fetch a bone. What bark can you even promise?"

"Why you little…" The senseless words had infuriated the pilot on the Dawn mech, "You are a stubborn kid, aren't ya? Let's see how I'm going to teach you something about manners! Don't tell me about your pointless suicide! You could shoot yourself in the head now, I'll just get a few 'whips' from my 'master' at most. But I'll make sure you would suffer enough before that!"

The threatening tone resounded through the peaceful forest, which turned chilly and disturbed.

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Chapter 139: The Greenbird in Liberty

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"So you are the kind who wouldn't bulge till doom is slapped right in your face eh? You might be the talent from the elite group, but well, too bad, too bad…," he spoke grimly, as the last sentence trailed off in shrills, of his firearm.

"You…" The girl was indeed a "kiddo" as labeled by the Dawn mech pilot. She apparently lacked experience in combats and reacted passively towards the sudden blow.

Ye Chong in the meantime decided to spectate the entire fight between the two parties at the side. He had once matched against the mechs from the Sanctuary before, but that was a team fight. It did not define the capabilities of the mech when alone, which was what Ye Chong strived to witness in the woods.

The dirty move pulled off by the pilot on the Dawn mech was fancied by Ye Chong. He would give an excellent score for the pilot was able to sneak an attack by distracting the foe with his words. An epitome of assassination to learn from! But Ye Chong knew his abilities well. With his personalities, it would be a little far-fetched to pull such trick off. He would be far more appropriate to sneak an attack in dark, without sound and without trace.

They exchanged moves rather quickly, since the space was limited and filled with numerous obstacles. Their distance of action was much shortened, thus the melee fights. Oh? Ye Chong was triggered by the word, "melee", that sounded like his arsenal!

The fight before came too abruptly. Ye Chong barely had the opportunity to do a close-up on most of the mechs involved, except for that purple mech.

Seemingly the Dawn mech had a distinctive 3 feet design, which gave it an improved balancing on the land, whereas the green mech looked bland in contrast. An oval cabin sat right above the 3 feet of the Dawn mech, where it was connected to a red disk with 3 pliable metallic tubes. Plenty of white spots of various sizes sparkled on the surface of red disk.

It looked odd indeed.

If Ye Chong stayed much longer in the Orbits, he would have known that the Dawn mech took the form of a kind of species exclusive to the place, the Tripeslug*.

The girl's green mech had obviously taken the form of a bird. The whole mech literally looked like a dainty green bird, which were much shorter than its opponent and it was hard to tell if it had anything outstanding about it. But then, Ye Chong was not foolish to judge the performance of a mech by its appearance. In fact, he had experienced the potency of the Dawn mech. Judging by the information obtained from the pilot, he seemed to be cautious with this "kiddo" he called.

The way the Dawn mech fought in close range was eccentric!

Snap! Two of the tubes connected to the disk were disengaged! Two red beams of light came out from the bottom and extended rapidly over the tubes in swirls!

Within twinkling of eyes, the pair of soft tubes had transformed into a pair of flaming electric whip. Buzz! Buzz! Electrical growl came from the whip occasionally along with a few arcs of light glaring in the eyes. And at the tip of both of the tubes a conical laser beam was installed.

Ye Chong was amazed by the ingenious design! The tubes clearly were made out of one-of-a-kind materials - highly pliable and durable, combining with the conical laser beams, they would have a certain level of penetrability. The choice of the tubes was great as they provided a more nimble action compared to most of the close-ranged weapons, due to the fact that it had the most intuitive changes of angle, hence becoming an unpredictable weapon to the foes. "Still, the downside… as usual…" Ye Chong could tell it at first glance, the whips were unpredictable alright, but it could not deal fatal damages to the foes.

The other tube was also covered with flames and electricity while the red disk had become a shield which its angle could be changed naturally.

That was smart. However, Ye Chong could tell - melee attacks should not be the strength of the mechs from Sanctuary. They could be supportive but not aggressive! The statement was apparent when the choice of close-ranged weapons installed on the mech was concerned. It lacked a killer! It did not have any vicious close-ranged weapon! Hence it would not allow the mech to gain the ultimate advantage in a melee attack and it would be nothing in front of the Black Covers' mech which aced at melee attack on the other end of the scale.

The Dawn mech fought proactively, its speed caught Ye Chong's attention.

The Black Coves, the FMPA, the Sanctuary… they might had an utterly different design of mechs with emphasis on a totally different aspect, but they had something strangely similar - all of them had superb speed. Consequently, speed remained as the core factor of mech combats, whether it did psychic attacks, a punch in the face or a missile launch with heat tracing.

Habitually the Guardian had activated its automatic analyzing system over the two mechs. The analysis ran like a whirlwind that a vast amount of information crashed the field like a wave of tsunami. Ye Chong's eyes were not in the mood for those. They were all on the fighting between the mechs.

The weaponry of the Dawn mech behaved exactly as Ye Chong predicted - the whips slitted oddly like serpents in the head, ever-changing and magnificently swift; the shield hovered around the body of the mech, highly prepared for incoming attacks.

The green mech seemed to be rather familiar with the battle style of the Dawn mech as she dodged the hurricane attacks with grace. Yet, she did not manage to dodge everything. The mech was whipped a few times, charred linings remained on the surface. The machine was not broken however. Although the flaming electric whip might had a threatening appearance, it still had limited forces that it did not deliver any actual damage to her mech.

The girl wielded a parrying spear, an ordinary weapon which Ye Chong had once used before.

"Eh?" Ye Chong was so astonished that he could not help but to exclaim. Something was amiss! His eyes fixed on the green mech's behavior. I knew it! At first glance, the girl was at a worse situation in the fight, holding up attacks from the foe; however, Ye Chong saw it through - the girl was fine the whole time, her attacks were actually delivered viciously that it drove the foe in panic.

These were not surprising enough to make our hero gasp at the spot. There was a silhouette of another person in the cabin. And that was… "The purple girl who nearly killed me that day!"

No wonder there was always a sense of acted-upon-prediction in the battle… Ye Chong still could feel that pain dealing with that purple physic girl the other day! The girl piloting the green mech also gave an identical sensation to Ye Chong. She seemed to never fail to foresee the movements of the foe and avoid them in the nick of time, though she did not feel as skillful as the purple girl.

If the purple psychic girl symbolized a matured fletching, the girl in the green mech would symbolize a nestling then.

Ye Chong was very much sure of his speculations by then. This had to be a technique unique to the mentalists in the Sanctuary, it could be learned! And from their conversation, he could tell that they were not measly of their kind.

Imagine a few tens of … no! They would only need a few mechs with pilots who had acquired the technique, imagine them with their rapports… how terrifying the potency would be! Ye Chong was getting cold sweat over his back. One-on-one was not even a confident fight to Ye Chong… let alone Two-on-one or more-than-two-on-one!

Ye Chong settled down as he collected his thoughts. He feared that the pilots who had mastered such technique would be the mastermind, the master strength of the Sanctuary! Well then! The girl in the green mech should not be a challenging opponent just yet! If he could obtain some top secrets of the Sanctuary from her, then it would be an immense help for him to identify the complicated factions in the Orbits. Moreover he would more likely to encounter her kind again in the near future. Assuming he could really dig some information beforehand, it could potentially save his life!

That tricycle mech was much worthless than the girl's head in his eyes.

This was it!

After a SWOT analysis in his head, Ye Chong made up his mind!

The three-dimensional illustration of the tricycle mech traced 4 white lines and 3 dots. Evidently those were the best spots to make fatal strikes after analysis. Ye Chong who had gotten pretty much used to the Guardian understood it well.

The jaguar peeked at its prey in the bushes, ready to pounce anytime!

…

"No," The girl in the green mech was holding the attacks laboriously. She knew that if she were to hold the attacks any longer, she would collapse before the damn watchdog. "But… But I…" She had lasted for this long yet she had hit her limit. The head was pounding as she overused her ability. "You should never overuse your physic ability! Never ever overuse your head! Preserve it more than any other parts of body!" The voice of her teacher echoed. The teacher had mentioned the precaution numerous times before. Overusing the ability would be dangerous.

"But!" What else could she do?

"No! I'm not giving up! I'm not accepting this!" She could not accept failure just like this. "I had done so much just to get out of that place! I had been running endlessly for these days. It was suffering, very suffering, but it would not stop me from loving the vibrant world outside! I am not going back for the monotonous, repetitive routine of training-learning-training! If I am going back for those, I'd rather die! Right here!"

… Stand still, stand still! Use your head to stand still!

Good girl, now, see through my moves.

If you can't see it, you will just take every blow from me.

In her memory, her "home" had always been the base, a base illuminated by artificial lighting, no sun, no moon, only cold people freezing her surrounding, her soul.

She had been planning her grand escape in the dark 3 years ago and she realized how useful the knowledge she had learned in this. She started to work even harder in her studies, paying extra efforts to every teaching she received, soon she became outstanding in the group and caught the teacher's attention and admiration.

Finally, half a month ago, I grabbed the opportunity and I made it out.

As expected, the Sanctuary took action extremely quickly. But what she did not expect in her prediction was that the Sanctuary actually sent a group of men to hunt her down. "Apparently I am indeed outstanding enough for the Sanctuary to send an army for me." The irony ridiculed her as she laughed bitterly. The additional inclusion of army in her plan did not panic her, instead, she saw through the silver lining in the sky calmly, seized every lining she saw and escaped.

She cracked her head thinking every single moment of her life. And she did it. The army slowly became a team, a team gradually became few men. Under her tenacity, only one foe had remained right before her.

Nevertheless, this situation was not what she desired, as she knew herself well, in a one-on-one, straight up it would be her defeat. It was not because of her poor performance of course. She might had yet complete the whole training course in the Sanctuary, but she was in fact the best of the elites. She had exceptional talent in this, compared to most of the pilots in the Sanctuary. It was depressing because her failure was solely because of the incapabilities of her mech compared to the Dawn mech. The Greenbird was a mere training mech for the pilots in the Sanctuary, no doubt it would be feeble in front of the standard Dawn mech from the Sanctuary.

No… No!

Does that mean am I going to really die here? Today?

Depression filled her heart, desperation drowned her mind.

Her body stuck in a fight, her soul stuck in a contract.

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Chapter 140: Little Girl

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Ah?

The corners of her eyes discerned a bright silhouette suddenly flashing by. The little girl shuddered in her heart. Wham! She looked back on her mech, a few new scratches were added to the body of her wounded Viridae*! She shook her head and tapped her cheeks, being the topmost student for sight examination in her group, "How could I be seeing things?" she mumbled. "What was that?" She failed to identify it at first sight. It had to be the speed of the moving object being too fast and not because of how it travelled beyond her field of attention. "Yeah, certainly!" She was very much confident of herself.

Something must have changed! This was the first speculation that popped up in her thoughts. The current situation would only put her in worse fates as time went. At this rate, inevitably she would be caught in the end! Well since she had gotten the worst situation, any changes would be a variable, a spark of hope for her to take hold of! Variables were exactly what the little girl desperately wished for!

At such perilous moment, yet she was as calm as the sea with her thoughts wondering. If both Mu and Ye Chong were aware of her thoughts, they would be pretty impressed too.

Still, a variable is a variable and this variable went beyond her calculation!

She wanted to act on something but…

Out of the blue, the Dawn mech was stoned as his hurricane attack stopped abruptly. It stood like a sculpture in the woods, an absolute activity to an absolute inactivity… which the girl could not react in time to. "Huh?" The girl was astounded, her eyes caught a few beams of pale green slashing through the bottom of the oval cabin of the Dawn mech.

Wait! Oh no…

Her face drained completely as she mumbled her fright, pulling her mech away from the Dawn mech, but she was too late! The Dawn mech exploded and the impact had shattered the balance of her mech. The Viridae lost control as it fell rolling like a giant boulder off the slope. The scene went spinning and her head was struck by concussion. Dizziness blanked her head, confusion seized her.

They were fighting in an opening of the woods. And the explosion directly caused a shallow dent of a diameter about 10 meter on the ground. The sound of branches breaking down and trees crashing rang throughout the forest. The trees were literally shredded, only the trunk was remained in messy cuts.

…

Ow… Oh…

She shook her heavy head, trying her best to get back into the scene. Her eyes blinked vigorously as the imagery grew clearer gradually. There was… There was a gold silhouette standing there… he seemed to be looking… at me?

She shook her head again. Her sight recovered fully and finally she identified what the gold silhouette was exactly. A mech…Mi-Miniature…mech? She could not believe her eyes. She was skeptical of what she saw, judging by the appearance and the sizing, it was a miniature mech indeed. But… was there a miniature mech this potent? That it could eliminate a Dawn mech by few slashes in dark? And that was a one hit kill too!

"No… No way. Absolutely, no way!" she muttered in disbelief, shaking her head. How could this be possible? She had been instilled with the ideology that the Sanctuary was invulnerable, unbeatable and was definitely the strongest. Even if the Sanctuary was put in comparison with the nemesis - the FMPA and the Black Coves, the Sanctuary would only be on par with them, and they could not simply destroy a Dawn mech's armor by a few slashes.

A miniature mech? Breaking a Dawn mech with cuts? This is too ridiculous! The capacity of a miniature mech was incomparable even to a standard mech in the market! Its sole purpose was to act as a personal guard. And I had never heard of ridiculous stories about a miniature mech overcoming a standard mech, especially a Dawn mech itself! No way. Impossible. Unm?glich! There had to be someone else dealing the fatal blows, not this mech alone, I must have missed it!

But who was it? She took a look around, there was nobody else!

Ye Chong did not look down on the Guardian though. Unlike the others, he recognized the power of the Guardian right from the beginning so he had subconsciously categorized it as a Super Mech. He had never thought about how others who had yet witnessed the potency of his mech would react at first sight. Nonetheless, even if the others did not feel alarmed while seeing the Guardian right in front of them, he would be much happier, since that simply meant that the Guardian would be easily-overlooked and he would have better odds on successful assassinations.

He stared at the green mech collapsed on the ground silently, awaiting it to get up. Despite that… he waited patiently. He waited very patiently. He waited very, very patiently. The person did not seem to have moved a gear. Ye Chong frowned in his mech. Was the person so feeble that she fainted even on such a weak blow?

The golden mask on his face expressed his frowning vibrantly. Well, of course, the tiny bits of changes on expression did not escape the little girl's certified, topmost assured sight.

So it really was him? Muttered the little girl in her mind.

"Get out!" Ye Chong had lost his patience, he began counting down, disregarding time given her to ponder, "10 seconds. Get out yourself or I'll do it for you." His words fell indifferently. No temper was in, as if the threatening was done like his usual dough-kneading.

Huh? Wait, um, no!

She panicked. Her sensible mind suggested her that it was in fact this golden man who destroyed the Dawn mech. The flat tone contained an indestructible confidence, which made her reassessed the ordinary-looking miniature mech in front of her.

10.

9.

Ye Chong did not expect the person's mind to be this sensible as he counted down nonchalantly.

8.

7.

The 10 seconds lapsed like milliseconds to a person in panic of sudden changes.

3.

2…

Ye Chong's voice was flat as always it was.

Wait!!!

To her horror, she found out how her pointless ponder had taken up too much time, the word quickly escaped her mouth, pleading for mercy.

T-1 before Ye Chong was launched.

Her face was pale; paler than the skeletons, as she saw the man in the miniature mech being still unconcerned despite his words. There were no changes on his expression at the slightest! She felt chilliness sent down to her marrows. A true fright to the spines!

In that mere second, the atmosphere mutated! Fear stormed the place. The tension… she had only tasted it once from the teacher who taught killing back in the Sanctuary.

"Your senses are much more sensible than most of the people, even more sensible than myself," commented their teacher. "Whenever you feel a sensation similar to mine of someone's, you've got to be careful. Never mess with such kind, understand?" The teacher's eyes gazed at her and her mates like a serpent in hunt. The gaze frightened the entire group.

And the tension exerted by the teacher was much stronger in this person!

I am doomed…

1.

Ye Chong did not even bother with her plight, his body moved as soon as he finished counting.

The golden man shrouded like a wind right towards her. Her face was fully drained, as she realized there was no way she could grasp the man at this speed. "Is this … Is this a human?"

Thup. A dead silence came next.

Crack.

Clink!

Crack Crack.

Crack! A few seconds later, the sound came last.

It felt like a thunder in her ears as in great terror she discovered her cabin shaking. The armor right in front of her was cracking, the lines spread like a spider web. The last sound of cracking was the sound made when the piece of armor fell.

Clink, clank. Klank, klink, shush! The pieces of armor rained before her. The fresh air surging in teased her suffocated mind. She felt pleasant and her nerves were serene. Yikes! Through the gap she could see the golden man staring at her expressionlessly. The eyes of solely black-and-white were freaking her out for some reason. Goosebumps occupied every inch of her skin.

Ye Chong planned to use his poorly-named dagger at first. But Dagger for No.2 was a bit too much for cracking the armor. A slight cut on the pilot inside could have been fatal and definitely he did not intend to do that. He wanted not her body, but her head for the information he desired. "Oh well." He went ahead with his fists instead. He did smash an alloy door open before but that blow wounded his fist. Thanks to the Guardian, its capability magnified his strength, so smashing the armor of Viridae open felt like a smashing plastic. His hands were covered by the Guardian, so there were no injuries as well.

Of course, it was not exactly due to the capability of the Guardian. It was also because of the materials used to build Viridae. Viridae was purely a mech for training purposes, one could imagine its material would be as brittle as plastic among the other great materials for Dawn mechs. Such a normal material, no doubt Ye Chong could break it even with his own fist. But if it was a Dawn mech, it would be a dream to even crack the armor with bare hands.

She crawled out of the mech with initiative. Seeing how the foe had behaved, it would be better for her to compromise and act along, just to guarantee her survivability… What if it enrages the foe? Any form of disobedience would be assumed as provocation for sure. And anyone could imagine what could possibly happen if the foe assumed you being disobedient. She would not want to lose her life over such foolish act.

The monochromatic sight of the Guardian was pretty bad at deciphering human's facial features. In Ye Chong's eyes, the girl looked like a three-dimensional avatar formed in white lines and shades of grids. It was strange, at least the lines were clear enough to roughly define the appearance of the girl.

The girl was as little as she sounded, about 13 to 14 years old. A shaggy short hair, a hollow face. She was in fact little thinner than average girls. She looked exhausted yet her eyes were lustrous. Well those were never Ye Chong's concern. "Mhm, good physique." He carried on looking, the muscles were of well-proportions and could be explosive at times. Obviously he could tell how the girl had undergone systematic training. Judging by the age and the rate of puberty of the girl - high score for the training course! And he was well-aware that this girl knew an important training course, yes, that technique unknown to Ye Chong where he got it from Mr. Yin. Mentalist would only teach to another mentalist. The training methodology was one to one, only the emphasis could be different. But they are commonly known to be time-consuming.

Under such a constraint of time yet she was able to achieve such a physique, impressive!

If Shang was here, he would probably begin to recite poetries about the beauty of the girl as he launched another round of commentary of the beauty. Too bad it was still a puzzling issue to Ye Chong to compute.

He stood before the little girl. "Wh-" He realized how the WH-question could be actually technical to initiate a meaningful conversation. Suddenly he did not know how he should begin.

"Mu… Mu!" muttered Ye Chong in his mind, the Orbits calling Mu, the Orbits calling Mu, "Why don't you do the inquiry instead?"

"I am no expert in this," Mu rejected the offer right away. "If you are indeed in need of assistance, I could call Shang for this, since he is considered more of the expert in this!"

"Shang?" He thought back the passionate lectures of tortures he received these few days from Shang, "Ne-Nevermind." He shook his head violently, "I'll do it myself."

Hmmm…

Settled down, Ye Chong pondered of which WH-question to start with.

The little girl was in shock at first, but she calmed herself over the time as she saw the miniature mech man stayed already silent for a long time. The heck he wants? Mumbled the girl.

"Your name?" The words broke the awkward silence.

She was alarmed and then she reacted calmly, part of the outcome of her training came flawlessly, "Zhu Ling."

"Zhu Lin?"

"Ling. With the 'g' at the end."

"Oh I see!" Ye Chong did not have any concept on surnames, since name was merely a code for someone to address yourself at convenience.

"Position at the Sanctuary?" he asked.

"Sanctuary?" I knew it! She got the purpose of this man right away. She had pinpointed the part of her sought by this person. That means I still have something to bargain with. As long as I get this right, then my situation would be dramatically improved!

Various plans ran through her head, her lips did not stop moving though, "I am the member of the elite group in the Sanctuary!" She understood the current situation disallowed her to act hesitated. Gaining trust from the person would be her top priority.

"Elite group?" Ye Chong had no idea what group that was.

"Well, elite group is an informal way to address for the insiders." Judging by Ye Chong's expression, she concluded that he knew nothing about the Sanctuary as she began explaining with patience, "The formal and official name of the group is known as the Sanctuary Executive Training group, which in simpler terms mean the group for the trainees who have yet completed their training as well as their assessment. They are under the Executives."

"Executives?" Another term first came to Ye Chong's ears.

"Mentalist Executives!"

"What are 'Mentalist Executives'?"

"Mentalist Executives are the internal bureaucracy formed by the advanced mentalist-pilots, mostly for fulfilling special mission or tasks with high difficulties." Pride was heard in her words as she said it with grace.

"I see! So they are all the expert pilots of the mentalist as you said?"

"Yes."

"And they are the ones with psychic ability?"

"Psychic ability?" The girl was confused, "The proper way to call it should be the 'extrasensory' of the body. It is a kind of application of mentality. And the mentalists are better experts in this compared to mentalist-pilot. It's just that the mentalist-pilots have in-depth understanding of combats. So they are aware of how to utilize such ability at maximum."

"Mhm, application is more of the key," Ye Chong utterly agreed to this statement. "So you are a mentalist… or a mentalist pilot?"

"Me? I… I have not passed the assessment so I can't be a mentalist-pilot just yet," her words sounded flat.

"So how many mentalist-pilots are there in the Sanctuary? How about the mentalists alone?" This would be the key question of the entire conversation. At least it would provide Ye Chong something to picture about the Sanctuary's forces.

"Abou-" She wanted to reply but Mu's voice hurried by Ye Chong's mind, "Ye, a mech is approaching here! And it's coming fast!"

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Chapter 141: Lifted Throughout the Journey

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Ye Chong felt a weight drop inside him. "How many?"

"Ten!" Mu's answer was a shock to Ye Chong. Ten mechs, the standard combat squad from the Sanctuary. Ye Chong was not too conceited as to believe that he could manage all ten of them single-handedly.

Zhu Ling was about to speak of what she knew when a golden figure flashed past, and by the time she realized what happened, she found herself lifted, moving quickly through the woods.

Zhu Ling was unable to open her eyes as she could hear the wind swishing past her, the headwind painful against her face. The occasional branch struck her body, delivering fiery pain that ensued. Nevertheless, she endured, and while it was quite painful, she did not even whisper a groan.

"30 degrees to the left!" Mu had chosen the best escape route for Ye Chong.

Ye Chong abruptly turned. Blood rushed to Zhu Ling's head from the centrifugal force produced from this sudden change in direction. Her visioned darkened, and Zhu Ling finally let out a moan. Fortunately, Zhu Ling had always trained hard with her physique in excellent condition. She momentarily recovered , though amazed by what happened. From the pain of the wind brushing past her face, she could roughly make out the speed of the gold mech; the conclusion she derived from this surprised and even frightened her.

The gold mech's speed was way faster than an average mech's speed! How was that possible? Her mind was all jumbled up, the facts confronting her all defying everyday knowledge. Earlier, she even noticed a small detail - the mech's turning radius was very small, and this would burden the mech pilot heavily, just like how she was temporarily in shock from the blood rushing to her head. However, the mech's pilot had made the turn like a normal maneuver - just what kind of monster was he?

Deep in her thoughts, there was another sudden turn, and Zhu Ling's vision darkened again, and her mind emptied!

She did not expect this to be just the beginning of an insufferable experience. The miniature mech made a series of impossible quick turns. Zhu Ling felt like she was swinging in Hell's playground, rising and falling, to the left and to the right. She could hardly afford to groan, and her remaining instincts told her to endure with all her might.

Ye Chong did not notice Zhu Ling's condition, it was lifted as she was in his hands. He was now entirely focused with Mu and the scenery before him. He needed to respond accurately and quickly to Mu's instructions, as the woods were littered with obstacles - it was no easy task to move so rapidly through the woods, and even with Ye Chong's commendable skills as a mech pilot, he dared not be careless.

The forest stretched far and wide, an unending sight of trees to the horizon. This provided ample space for Ye Chong to move.

Under Mu's instructions, Ye Chong managed to avoid the Sanctuary's standard combat squad as it headed towards the scene of the incident.

Just as Ye Chong was about to relax, Mu's words made Ye Chong ran again like a beast in heat, "Ye, don't stop, they're following your tracks towards you. Hmm, be careful, there are three mechs keeping watch in the sky!"

Unlike normal mechs that move with their engines, Guardian's strength came from the pilot's own strength, with amplification. Hence, Ye Chong did not fly, but ran and leaped as he made his way forward. Through Guardian's amplification of Ye Chong's already superior strength, every step onto the ground brought soil flying into the air, creating a hole in the ground - his trail was marked distinctly like plowed soil. This left an easy sign for the enemy to track him.

Poor Zhu Ling. If the previous journey was unforgettable to her, the next journey was like a living hell! More speed, more impossible turns and a bumpier ride, all made her nearly lost her mind. The stress was already more than her body could take, and she had quickly fallen into a semi-conscious state.

The trees in the forest were humongous, nearly obliterating the view of the sky. Ye Chong stuck close to the ground as he charged forward, as his movements completely hidden from the skies.

Unlike Ye Chong's desperate run forward, the seven Dawn mechs advanced carefully, as though anticipating an ambush. The squad leader in the center looked even more sombre than the rest. From the marks on the ground, it was obviously not a normal mech, its size probably similar to a human's. This reminded him of the Sanctuary's earlier announcement of an important fugitive, one armed with a gold miniature mech. It was similar to the current target at hand.

He immediately reported this to the Sanctuary. "For a traitor to side with an enemy …" The thought was unsettling.

From the latest intel report by the Sanctuary, the gold miniature mech had surprisingly powerful combat abilities. In the intel report, it was even advised for anyone facing the mech alone to seek help! For the veteran squad leader, this smelt like danger. It also meant that, in a one-on-one battle, the Sanctuary was not confident of victory.

This was why as Ye Chong went full speed ahead, the seven mechs behind him followed cautiously, fearing of an ambush.

Ye Chong moved among the trees like an enchanted golden bullet.

Suddenly, the view in front of Ye Chong lit up - he had left the forest. He was greeted with a wide river, which he leaped into without hesitation.

Just moments after Ye Chong jumped into the river, a large group of Dawn mechs swished past the river's surface and entered the forest.

Further downstream, on a secluded shore of pebbles, a golden figure suddenly rose from the waters, a girl lifted in its hands, unconscious.

This was Ye Chong, emerging from his little dive. With Guardian's protection, Ye Chong moved like a fish underwater, unlike his previous humiliating experience.

Ye Chong put down Zhu Ling from his grasp, as she landed gently on the pebbly shore. After the desperate run through the forest, at such high speeds, any branch hitting her inevitably left a rip on her clothing. After all the running, her clothes were now in tatters, and that dip in the river left her nearly naked. Zhu Ling received strict training since she was young, and her physique had matured early, with a perfect body shape. This exposed view of her would have riled up most men.

Ye Chong was unmoved by the beautiful sight. It was not that Ye Chong lacked any masculine instincts, but Ye Chong knew next to nothing about these things. The only experience he had was only that one lick of Rui Bing. Besides, in Ye Chong's eyes, Zhu Ling was but a 3D image composed of a jumble of white lines, along with some relevant data on the side by Guardian. Under these circumstances, the only way Ye Chong could be moved was if he had reached Shang's level of appreciation!

"Hmm?" Mu exclaimed in surprise, unusual for his calm self.

"What is it? Mu!" Ye Chong asked curiously, since not many things could surprise Mu.

"Look at that necklace on her neck!"

"Hmm, what's wrong with that? It looks normal!" Ye Chong had no experience on women's jewelry such as necklaces, but he still went to have a look.

Hung from an ancient-looking string was a pendant shaped like a water droplet. The pendant was an opaque gray, which was not very impressionable. Of course, Ye Chong only saw its 3D grid image.

"Is it a dimension keystone?" Ye Chong's first guess was a dimension keystone, since many were made like pendants or ornaments, just like Mu's.

"No!" Mu rejected Ye Chong's idea decisively, and revealed the truth, "Based on available information, that droplet shaped pendant is made of a very rare material commonly known as Red Liquor. Red Liquor looked plain under normal circumstances, but when exposed to alcohol, it would turn a vivid red, and it was very popular among the ladies. However, it is very rare, and so, highly precious. If my information is correct, only some of the very ancient aristocratic families have these jewels!"

"Do you mean that the girl's background is suspicious?" Ye Chong's reaction was almost immediate.

"No, the term 'suspicious' feels too much like a subjective opinion! It's not recommended! I merely believe that this person's background has a high probability of being unusual!" Mu's calculating words felt almost devoid of emotions.

"Hmm, it's certainly possible, but her background has got nothing to do with us! Hmm, Mu, can Red Liquor enhance the properties of metallic materials?" Ye Chong asked. This was something he was interested in.

"There is no information on that as of yet! After all, it's a rare material, no one would experiment on it." Mu replied.

"Hmm, then we gotta experiment!" Ye Chong cocked his head to the side, considering the idea.

Ye Chong stooped down and took the droplet shaped Red Liquor from Zhu Ling, without any sense of guilt. To him, Zhu Ling was his prey, and anything the prey owned was now naturally his! Deep inside, Ye Chong still believed in the ways of nature.

The young lady slowly awakened, and the contents of her stomach immediately started protesting like a storm. She lurched forward and vomited for a long moment.

When they entered the river, the semi-conscious young lady was instantly awakened, and found herself underwater. She did not panic, since surviving underwater for long periods of time was part of her training.

It was far more comfortable in the water, at least when compared to the insanely rapid turns on the ground. Slowly, she realized that the mech had no intention of surfacing to breathe! While she was considered excellent in this particular kind of training, that did not mean that she could stay underwater indefinitely. Out of alternatives, she forced herself into a faked state of death.

On the shores, with stimulation of fresh air, she slowly awakened, and upon returning to consciousness, found her the contents of her stomach raging like a storm. She could not help but throw up violently, unaware of her missing necklace.

After throwing up, she finally calmed down, and Zhu Ling finally noticed that her clothing could not longer fully cover herself. The young woman was, however, unembarrassed, and acted with her usual calm.

"Alright, you can continue with your questions! But let me leave after that!" The young woman spoke calmly.

Ye Chong was impressed, but did not show it as he spoke, "Hmm, alright, then let's continue the question earlier. How many mentalists and mentalist pilots are there in the Sanctuary?"

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Chapter 142: A Sudden Thought

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Ye Chong walked home by himself, his mind still preoccupied with the intel he obtained from the young lady earlier. He had imagined the Sanctuary to be powerful, but did not expect it to as powerful as he now knew. No wonder it could hold itself against Black Cove and the MPA! The Sanctuary's power came from its mentalists and mentalist pilots, and this made Black Cove and the MPA wary of it.

Black Cove, MPA and Sanctuary - Ye Chong considered the Three Forces, interrelated to but independent from one another. The Three Forces had many similarities, such as mech technologies that far exceeded that of the Five Galaxies, and their total mystery, as if they came from a different, powerful and mysterious world.

As for that young woman called Zhu Ling, Ye Chong let her go in the end! While killing her was easy, Ye Chong did not really feel like killing her. He did not enjoy killing, and he had only killed others for survival. If it was not necessary, why should he kill another person? Beside, he was quite impressed by the young woman - calm, rational, and persevering, Ye Chong saw traces of himself in her!

The young woman left with a calm expression, as though she had expected to be released. After some rest, the young woman showed remarkable physical capabilities, her movements athletic, as she gradually vanished out of Ye Chong's sight. Looking out to the empty shore of pebbles, Ye Chong could not help but sigh a little. To survive was rarely a simple task! That precious Red Liquor sat quietly in Ye Chong's bag.

Back at Lunatic Guan's place, Ye Chong realized that he had returned empty handed from his trip outdoors today, and smiled wryly.

Inside the house, Lunatic Guan was in a rare state of sobriety, packing her things energetically. Lunatic Guan saw Ye Chong and called to him, "Little Ye, did you see my light yellow jacket?"

"Light yellow?" Ye Chong cocked his head to its side and thought for a moment. "It's been probably thrown out!" He was cleaning up that day, and had gotten rid of a mountain of things. Ye Chong could not recall if a light yellow jacket was one of them. However, since it could not be found, the probability of it being thrown away was high!

"What? Thrown out?" Lunatic Guan's expression froze, and immediately turned into great anger, "How dare you throw it out! Didn't you know I'm still going to wear it? Didn't you know …"

"I didn't!" Ye Chong replied calmly but clearly.

Lunatic Guan was instantly silenced, and remembered then that she had asked him to clean up the house without giving any specifications. Lunatic Guan calmed down a little and humphed coldly, "I'll let you off this time, next time ask me before you throw anything out, don't just throw anything away!"

"Okay!" Ye Chong replied plainly.

"I'm going out these two days, so you stay in the house. Hmm, I've prepared some course material for you in Room Seven's photon processor, with detailed requirements. You'll do a test when I'm back, and if you fail, hehe …" Lunatic Guan was obviously still holding grudge towards Ye Chong's role in her lost jacket, and her tone was unpleasant.

Ye Chong was like a rock, unmoved by Lunatic Guan's tone, and replied flatly, "Okay!"

"Hmph!" Lunatic Guan gave another cold humph and continued packing.

Ye Chong gathered from experience that Lunatic Guan would periodically make a long trip outdoors. During his time at Nan Nan's house, whenever this happened, Ye Chong would have to visit earlier to retrieve the strengthening chemicals. Thus, while Ye Chong did not know where she was going, he was still not surprised at the trip.

Lunatic Guan hastily left, and Ye Chong was left alone in the house. Ye Chong enjoyed the peace. There were not too much of Lunatic Guan's prepared materials to study, and Ye Chong mastered them all in only a few days, and spent another two days collecting plant specimens. Ye Chong now had his time to himself with his tasks completed.

Ye Chong thought of the day he worried about not having a mech for transport, and had a sudden thought - perhaps he can try making a full-skeleton mech. Once the thought occurred to him, Ye Chong could not stop thinking about it.

The thought was too enticing!

For one, he had no suitable mech to use in the open that would not expose his identity. If his life was threatened, he would be defenseless! Hence, he desperately needed a mech, but the average mechs vendored in shops could no longer satisfy him.

On the other hand, this would also be a comprehensive test of all his knowledge and skills!

Ye Chong was decisive, and after affirming his choice, immediately went to the old man's place. After all, the materials would have to come from him.

The old man listened to Ye Chong's plain statement of his decision through slit eyes, and spoke after a moments' thought, "Come with me!"

The old man brought Ye Chong to a room in the underground workshop where he usually rested. This was the first time Ye Chong entered the old man's resting area. The room was not spacious, with only a bed and a table. There were some daily appliances in the corner of the room, and in another corner were some tools.

The old man walked to that corner to activate some concealed mechanism, and the wall behind Ye Chong slid quietly to the side. Ye Chong was a little surprised to find a secret room in here, but his expression was as inert as a stubborn rock.

Seeing Ye Chong's calm expression, the old man's eyes gleamed softly with pride.

The two entered the secret room. Skeletons - the entire secret room was full of skeletons! However, compared to the mountain pile of skeletons outside, these skeleton materials in the secret room were few, numbering only a few dozen. Nonetheless, Ye Chong knew immediately that these skeletons were of higher quality than the ones outside, and some were even extremely rare materials. These skeletons were undoubtedly like treasure to a skeleton carver!

No skeleton carver would be unmoved by the variety and quality of skeleton materials kept in here. At least Ye Chong was so, his expression changing for the first time as he looked at these skeletons!

"Heavens! These skeletons are amazing!" Ye Chong thought as his eyes glowed, scanning through the materials!

The old man was pleased with Ye Chong's expression, and explained with some delight, "Every year, the Sanctuary would send some rare skeletons to me as a gift. I've kept them all this while, all for the sake of making a full-skeleton mech one day. Sigh, I'm old now, nothing like you young people! I have been stuck for a while now with my skills, there's no hope left for me in this lifetime. It's up to you now!" The old man spoke with some helplessness, his age more obvious than ever.

Ye Chong could not help but sober up from his enthusiasm.

The old man then spoke seriously, "I was going to pass on these materials to you when your skills were fully matured, but this thought of yours came earlier than I expected. As your master, I have nothing else to teach you, your accomplishments are by your own efforts, and even I have learnt much from you. Take these materials with you. You're careful in nature, these materials will not be wasted in your hands!"

The old man's words were sincere, and Ye Chong was touched. He gathered himself with some difficulty and managed to reply with a calm tone, "Thank you, Master!"

With the old man's help, Ye Chong did not have to worry about materials. Initially, Ye Chong was only thinking of just making a mech of passable quality, but he did not expect the old man to provide his treasured skeletons accumulated over the years. Faced with these quality chosen skeletons materials, his initial thoughts were now abandoned, and his only intention now was not only to make a full-skeleton mech, but a top class one at that. Ye Chong even had a name ready for it - Han Jia. Of course, the name did not have any special meaning, since it was derived by Mu through a random selection algorithm. Ye Chong did not care to waste effort in this aspect. Thus, the name was decided.

The first challenge was the mech's main body design. The mech was designed for Ye Chong's personal use, hence it was inevitably a close range mech. Speaking of close range mechs, among all the ones that Ye Chong had encountered, the strongest would be Black Cove's mechs. Black Cove's mechs were the undisputed king of close range mechs.

However, it was not practical to model completely after Black Cove. While Ye Chong had spent some time at Black Cove, he had only ever played around with the F-58's structure, and not any other Black Cove mechs. The F-58 was only used for training in Black Cove, and far inferior to the Black Cove war mechs. Besides, here on the Orbits, the Sanctuary's men were everywhere, and they were familiar with the style of Black Cove's mechs. He would only be targeted by the Sanctuary if he flew a mech like that outside.

Seemed that he would have to come up with something himself!

As for the engine, Ye Chong planned to remove Yu Di's engine. While Yu Di's engine was far inferior to Mu's, it still managed to hold its ground when going against the MPA's mechs. This was good enough for Ye Chong! Due to the engine's capabilities, it could not be made entirely of skeletons. Only certain key parts of it, such as the padding, could be made of skeletons to enhance its capabilities. Besides, designing the engine was more complicated and detailed than designing the mech itself, and Ye Chong was not certain if his own engine design would be better than the work of Fred the Great.

"Best to use what I have, and add some skeleton components to modify it a bit," Ye Chong deliberated.

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Chapter 143: Han Jia

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

A mech's most important part were its engine and photon processor. The engine's problem was dealt with, but Ye Chong knew nothing of photon processors. Fortunately, he did not rely heavily on them, and a simple photon processor bought from the streets was enough to satisfy him.

Besides the photon processor and engine, other components such as scanning systems were not things that Ye Chong could make himself. Scanning systems found in the market were probably not up to par, and effectively useless against mechs from Black Cove, the Sanctuary and the like. However, Ye Chong did not plan to install a scanning system. As long as he had Mu, who had the most advanced scanning system, all he needed was a device that could link to Mu via photon processor. This was not too hard for him.

However, these was all work in later stages. For now, Ye Chong must understand which materials he had for disposal. This was unique to full-skeleton mechs - they were designed based on available materials, unlike the usual method of finding materials based on the design.

Rare skeletons were often chanced upon, and so the method of choosing the right materials based on design was impractical in the process of making a full-skeleton mech. Even when using the same type of skeletons, the quality would differ, since factors such as the animal's age and living environment would greatly affect the skeletons' density, strength and other properties.

Looking at the myriad of rare skeletons laid on the ground before him, Ye Chong was suddenly struck with much anticipation. What kind of mech would he come up with?

As he familiarized himself with all the skeletons, Ye Chong began to design the mech. With Mu's assistance, this process did not take too long. He also prepared a few backup schemes in case he mishandled some skeletons by accident. However, Ye Chong hoped that they would not be needed in the end.

After that, he set to work!

The early processes were mundane. Crude processing of the skeletons demanded patience. No one had ever single-handedly produced a full-skeleton mech, and Ye Chong did not expect the heavy workload. Fortunately, Ye Chong was physically well prepared. Ye Chong worked like a tireless machine, continuing on and on.

Ye Chong's went through every step with great care, since most of those skeletons were unique, and if damaged, could only be replaced by another different one. If the replacement was in any way different to the original intended skeleton, it would reduce the overall performance of the mech. That was something Ye Chong hoped to avoid.

Every day, Hei Zi would send food to Ye Chong, but never interrupting him. Even little Nan Nan was sensible enough to not keep pestering her elder brother to play.

For an entire month, Ye Chong worked in an insane but peaceful condition. Even when it was Shang's turn to come outside, the mech knew that bothering Ye Chong would have dreadful consequences. Hence, the mech made the rational choice of keeping quiet.

Ye Chong stared longingly at the mech.

He admired the result of his month-and-a-half of hard work, and felt a great sense of accomplishment bubbling in him. This was definitely a masterful work, an impressive work! Ye Chong was most thankful for the fact that he did not damage a single skeleton in the whole process.

The mech stood at 12 meters tall, its main body made of giant whale's vertebrae and titan scarab's exoskeleton, shaped like a human. Ye Chong loved Yu Di's four-armed design, since it could effectively make use of his impressive hand speed. However, Yu Di's four-armed designed was too out of the ordinary, and would leave a strong impression in anyone who had seen it. The Sanctuary was still searching for Yu Di. If he made a similar four-armed mech, would that not invite trouble?

Ye Chong worked around it. He thought of the Dawn mech's two electric whips, and then of the four semi-crystallised thousand-segment worms among the skeletons the old man had given him. Ye Chong used those, but the inner photon circuits took him much effort to set up. The thousand-segment worms could not be made into electric whips, so Ye Chong attached bone spikes at the ends instead. These spikes were from the beater-eater's back, and were quite tough. Ye Chong had punctured high-strength alloy boards with them. Besides that, the spikes were resilient, and did not break easily from bending. Ye Chong spent much time whetting the spikes, exhausting one whetting machine for each spike, a sign of the weapons' toughness.

The four thousand-segment worm whips with spikes were kept in four concealed shooting chambers in the lower back of the mech, inconspicuous from the outside.

The mech's named was decided early on to be Han Jia. If it were up to Ye Chong, he would probably not want to take too much trouble in naming and just call it Number 1. However, since Mu had provided the name, even if using a random algorithm, Ye Chong did not mind it.

Han Jia's main weapon was its daggers. These were made from a fangbeast's canine teeth, with some heavy processing. The two daggers were slightly longer than the average mech's daggers, arching slightly and lined with natural serrated edges, with razor sharp tips. The daggers were as black as night, and as soon as Ye Chong was done making them, he found himself loving them very much!

Of all the weapons, Ye Chong found the daggers most handy, but their attack range was very limited. If only he still had Yu Di's UF magnetic sword, the work of Fred the Great! The UF magnetic swords sold in the streets were far inferior to the original, and Ye Chong could not see himself using them.

On Han Jia's left arm was a shield, its surface etched with scale-like patterns. It was made of iron lizard's scales gathered on the trash planet. These scales could survive unscathed from Mu's attack, and that left a deep impression in Ye Chong. He immediately thought of them when he began working on the shield.

After that, Ye Chong found that the iron lizard's scales could not only shield against physical attacks, but also energy based weapons. This impressed Ye Chong. It was as if the material was destined to be used for defense shields. There was also another advantageous property, and that was its light density. This made the shield much lighter than conventional metal shields.

Ye Chong accepted Mu's advice and made the shield with an overlapping method. This produced the scale-like patterns. Of course, Ye Chong sharpened the edges of the shield as per his habit. If he could add another function to the weapon, then why not?

Other than this, Ye Chong also removed Harmony of the Winter Aria's two auto lock-on double-edged shurikens and attached them on Han Jia. With that, Han Jia had some limited long range attack capabilities.

Ye Chong also wanted to add some barbs on Han Jia' shoulders, elbows, knees and feet, since they were unexpectedly useful in close range combat. However, Ye Chong rejected those in the end, since a mech like that would be too eye-catching, and that would be against his intention of keeping himself under the radar. Aside from that, it was similar to Black Cove's style, and Ye Chong did not want to be mistaken as one of them.

Han Jia's every detail was the result of Ye Chong's meticulous considerations. However, in the end, Ye Chong was still quite satisfied with it.

The most satisfying feature of Han Jia for Ye Chong would be its astonishing speed!

Han Jia's main body was made of skeletons, making it significantly lighter than metals. With the same propulsion force, Han Jia could move a good two Machs faster than Harmony of the Winter Aria! While Guardian could go up to Mach 10, it was only for a short burst. Han Jia, however, could fly at its top speed for long journeys. Compared to Harmony, Han Jia was definitely faster!

On the battlefield, just a tiny advantage in speed would provide a great overall advantage. With a speed of Mach 9, Ye Chong would definitely gain an upper hand going against the likes of the Sanctuary, Black Cove or the MPA. On top of that, with the ability of long range flight at Mach 9, it would be easier to escape!

After completion, Ye Chong used Guardian to make a thorough analysis of the mech, and fixed a few small but potentially fatal flaws.

Hei Zi gasped and marvelled at Ye Chong's work from the sidelines. While the old man said nothing, his eyes were shining brightly, staring up to the first full-skeleton mech in history. The two of them watched the mech, fully observant, and did not notice that Ye Chong had already left.

Ye Chong was exhausted! A month and a half of nonstop working with high concentration had drained him. Once Ye Chong had finalized his mech, he could no longer bear it as he found a passably tidy spot and slept! He fell asleep almost immediately after he lay down.

When Ye Chong woke up, it was already the third day. He was awakened by hunger, his empty stomach growling in protest. Seeing some food placed beside him, Ye Chong started devouring them without hesitation. "These must be from Hei Zi," Ye Chong thought as he ate.

After he finished, his hunger was slightly lessened. Ye Chong picked himself up and went to the now completed Han Jia.

In terms of design, Han Jia was considered sparse, with no signs of decoration on it. Nonetheless, its natural style was refreshing. In terms of color, however, Han Jia was quite a handful. Each skeleton material was in a different hue - black, white, light green, dark red … This gave Han Jia a unique enigma. Besides that, the unique texture of skeleton luster made Han Jia looked more like a carved sculpture of abstract art.

With the exception of the metallic shine from the titanium scarab's exoskeleton, other parts looked like jade, or wood, and some even looked like synthetic material. The mech looked odd, but it was undeniable that such a strange mech would draw attention from everyone!

Ye Chong could not help but knitted his brows.

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Chapter 144: Learning

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The one thing Ye Chong wanted to avoid the most was attention. On the trash planet, the last one standing was often the one lying in the dark, waiting to ambush. The quicker one was exposed under the star's light rays, the higher the probability of death! At the moment, if Ye Chong's identity was discovered by the Sanctuary, he would not stand a chance.

Every part of Han Jia, standing before him, told the story of a very special mech! "What an eyesore!" Ye Chong thought.

What should he do? Ye Chong pondered long and hard. He had wanted to build a mech that could hide his identity, but had ended up with one that made him the center of attention. He could not help but smile ironically! His eyes wandered to a corner stashed with bottles of all sorts, and Ye Chong unconsciously scanned through them. Ye Chong's vision suddenly focused on a silver bottle!

Ye Chong groaned at his own stupidity. Such a simple solution had taken him so long to reach! He picked himself up and walked towards the silver bottle!

Ye Chong looked at Han Jia, deeply satisfied!

Dazzling silver covered every part of Han Jia. The mech's earlier modest charisma was now gone without a trace. Now, Han Jia looked like an arriviste, making a clumsy show of his wealth! A moment ago, Ye Chong sprayed a layer of bright silver paint on Han Jia. However, Ye Chong was now deeply satisfied. Even if it was him seeing Han Jia among other mechs, he would probably not waste any extra attention on the mech.

Any slightly experienced mech pilot would know that the real masters would not draw attention to themselves. Only plain-looking mechs could potentially be advanced level mechs.

Only newcomers would paint their mechs in such a dazzling style, hoping for attention.

After giving Han Jia an ugly paint job, Ye Chong heard Hei Zi calling him, "Ye, Master would like to see you!"

"Okay!" Ye Chong replied, and headed outside. Ye Chong had already locked himself as Han Jia's user. Except for himself, no one else could examine Han Jia's interior. This was because Ye Chong did not want Han Jia's interior accessories to be known, since some of them were quite unsettling.

Han Jia's dimension keystone was linked to a light green bracelet, which Ye Chong put on his left wrist. Ye Chong had wanted a ring, but considering the effect of having too many rings on his fingers' movements, he chose a bracelet in the end.

There was one thing that he found himself quite annoyed with, and that was the fact that he could not find any brainwave activated dimension keystone in the area. All he found were old-fashioned sound activated ones. Sound activation was undesirable in terms of reaction time and discretion, and this vexed Ye Chong for a long time.

One could be sure that Han Jia was now a sight to behold. As Hei Zi entered and saw Han Jia's transformation, he gaped widely and froze in bewilderment, speechless as Ye Chong left unnoticed!

Ye Chong went to the old man. The old man was not tinkering with his tools as per usual, but sitting before his desk in the resting room, staring into space.

Ye Chong entered and greeted softly, "Master."

"Oh, Ye, you're here, sit!" The old man gathered his thoughts and looked at Ye Chong, sitting opposite him and looking back at him. He pondered for a long while, speaking slowly, "Ye, did you have any episodes from your strange illness recently?"

Ye Chong shook his head. "No." He did not understand why the old man would suddenly ask about this.

The old man looked at Ye Chong meaningfully and said, "Hei Zi said that your illness can only be cured outside the Orbits, is that right?"

"Yes." Ye Chong nodded.

"It looks like you'll leave the Orbits for sure." The old man suddenly sighed.

"Yes."

"You're the first skeleton carver to ever make a full-skeleton mech. I was hoping you could help me teach Hei Zi, that he may reach your level one day! I know, your interest does not lie entirely in skeleton carving. Haha, I didn't think I would be able to see a full-skeleton mech in my entire lifetime, I'm quite satisfied! However, if you're leaving the Orbits, sigh, Hei Zi …" The old man spoke hesitantly.

Ye Chong fell silent. He understood the old man, but what could he do?

"When do you plan on taking the Sanctuary's Trials?" The old man changed the topic abruptly and asked Ye Chong.

"After some time." Ye Chong continued explaining, "After I spend some time on alchemy."

"Eh, that's good! Teach Hei Zi in the meanwhile, he may be a little opaque but he's very grounded, and is never lazy!"

"Yes." Ye Chong replied. Even if the old man did not say so, Ye Chong had planned to do it all along.

The old man's expression suddenly turned serious, and focused his eyes on Ye Chong. "Ye, if you're thinking of leaving the Orbits, never let anyone know that you can build full-skeleton mechs. Or else, you may have to live your entire life under the eyes of the Sanctuary. Of course, if it's like that, you won't have much to worry besides your freedom. For example, about your strange illness, the Sanctuary would never let a skeleton carver capable of building a full-skeleton mech to die of illness. As for the Sanctuary's power, I believe you understand that completely. Haha, well, can you accept this way of life?"

"No!" Ye Chong replied decisively. Without freedom, Ye Chong could never accept it.

The old man broke into a grin. "Haha, as I guessed. But if that's the case, Ye, you must be careful, never let anyone realize that you know how to build full-skeleton mechs. Remember, never! Or else, if the Sanctuary knew, you'll never leave the Orbits. I've reminded Hei Zi, and he'd never tell anyone. That full-skeleton mech that you have, it's best not to use it unless necessary, now that there are many who could tell the difference. Hmm, best if you paint the mech, so that it wouldn't be so obvious!"

Ye Chong silently applauded the old man's experience, but was also moved from the old man's concern about him.

Ye Chong left the old man's room and met Hei Zi again. Hei Zi gave Ye Chong an odd look. He could not understand how someone would intentionally make his own mech ugly! Besides, this was his rational Junior Brother, and that perplexed him.

Now that Ye Chong was not occupied, he spend his days revising the coursework given by Lunatic Guan. While Lunatic Guan's threats of punishment did not bother him, he still appreciated the knowledge, since he understood that it would form part of his strength, and might one day be crucial for his survival.

For someone who valued life as much as Ye Chong, that was the most convincing reason.

Other times, Ye Chong would teach Hei Zi about the foundational theories of mechs. However, the entire system of knowledge was too vast, and Hei Zi was not as good as Ye Chong was in terms of intelligence and foundation. Hence, he improved slowly, and Ye Chong could not do much about it.

Ye Chong also allocated some time for Room 5, using the authorization password from Lunatic Guan to activate the room's photon processor and studied the secretive news and rules related to the ancient occupation that was alchemy. As he read on, Ye Chong gradually grew terrified. The world before him was a very mysterious one, an isolated world, with its own rules and social norms.

What Ye Chong was most interested in was the abilities of some unusual alchemists from obscure branches of the field. They mostly seemed inconceivable to Ye Chong.

One such example was a branch in microorganism studies. They could grow and multiply certain types of microorganisms up to tens of thousands of their original number. There was once a person who developed a grudge against one of them, and was secretly infected with this microorganism together with a special kind of catalyst. In the blink of an eye, that person began to age and wither quickly, and died a curious death.

This narrative immediately got Ye Chong's attention. Ye Chong was always vigilant against unknown forces . This was terrifying! Fortunately, these people were not battle enthusiasts, and had never sought conflict with others by their own initiative.

This mysterious world was mainly made up of ancient aristocratic families. Through a long history of accumulating knowledge, they could reach further depths in their field. As for those who supported academy establishments, traditional alchemists often thought it beneath themselves.

Ye Chong had never heard of the news in here. Even with Ye Chong's boldness, he was still chilled as he read through some of the information. There were too many strange things going on!

After finishing his reading, Ye Chong felt moved. The world was a vast place. How much more remained unknown? How many worlds remained to be discovered?

Lunatic Guan finally returned, looking fatigued, worn out by the journey, her expression betrayed some sense of desolation. She saw Ye Chong and exchanged some casual words before returning to her room to rest.

The next morning, Lunatic Guan woke Ye Chong up for her so-called test.

The entire afternoon was spent taking the test.

Lunatic Guan's face did not show any emotions, but her heart was swirling like a tsunami. The coursework she gave Ye Chong was partly meant to make things difficult for him. While they were basic knowledge, but the content was abundant. For someone without any basics in alchemy, it would impossible to master them in such a short time. However, Ye Chong had done it!

"This guy is a genius!" The thought flashed past Lunatic Guan's mind. At the same time she found herself feeling a little excited!

She was not aware that Ye Chong was not entirely without any foundations in alchemy. Besides, the amount of information was nothing compared to what Shang had pestered Ye Chong to learn on alchemy.

Lunatic Guan nodded in approval on the surface, "Good god, your homework was done quite well! Hmm, since you're done with homework, we're going to continue on with the next phase of learning. This phase will focus on the basic skills in alchemy. Of course, theoretical studies will continue.

"Remember, for an alchemist, practice, is always more important than words!"

Lunatic Guan spoke her last sentence with a rare expression of seriousness.

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Chapter 145: It's All the Red Liquor's Fault

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Ever since that day, Ye Chong became busier, his daily schedule jam packed with activities, as though Lunatic Guan was trying to identify his limits. As for Ye Chong, he noticed for the first time that being an alchemist placed a high demand on his physical endurance. If not for his outstanding physical strength, he probably would have exhausted himself early on.

Once again, Ye Chong's performance was a pleasant surprise to Lunatic Guan. His seemingly frail body harboured extraordinary strength, as though he was always physically ready. Besides, he had great talent and was a quick study; his long, white fingers moved deftly, as though he was born to be an alchemist. This won much admiration from Lunatic Guan. In order to make Ye Chong "suffer", Lunatic Guan even invested her own time in him, and spent less time in drinking. Often, she would even forget all about drinking. Of course, Ye Chong was not foolish enough to remind her of that. Gradually, Lunatic Guan had forgotten of her original intention and began to teach Ye Chong more seriously. She began to treat Ye Chong like an actual student of hers without actually meaning to do so!

With one of them teaching in earnest, and another learning in earnest, Ye Chong improved quickly!

Ye Chong could finally relax a little, since this phase of learning had finally ended, and Lunatic Guan had granted him a few days' leave. Now, Ye Chong could synthesize his own strengthening chemical, since for a true alchemist, knowing the ingredients was enough to make the chemical easily. From the old man's point of view, Ye Chong's learning mission was completed.

With the rare moment of leisure, Ye Chong enjoyed his idle time by carving some little things out of some smaller skeleton pieces for practice, to keep his skills sharp. Ye Chong had no sense of aesthetics, and carved only mech models. He did not bring his carving knife with him, and used the dagger gifted to him by Gu Shaoze.

Ye Chong looked satisfyingly at the final product in his hands, and kept his dagger back into his bag. Suddenly, he noticed the Red Liquor obtained from the young woman, and thought of Mu's description of the stone's properties with growing excitement.

"Shang, Mu said that Red Liquor will change in color when stimulated by alcohol, is that right?"

"Hmm, based on our database it should be right! Besides, you can always experiment to find out!" Shang spoke indifferently.

"Right, I can experiment to find out. Hm, alcohol, Lunatic Guan should have plenty of it here!" Will Lunatic Guan run out of alcohol? Absolutely not.

Ye Chong found Lunatic Guan leaning against the wall, sitting on the floor with a wine glass in hand, looking outside the door in a daze.

"Lend me your alcohol!" Ye Chong felt it would better to be straightforward. While both were his teachers, Ye Chong found himself unable to treat Lunatic Guan like he treated the old man, probably due to their age.

"Alcohol?" Lunatic Guan turned to him, awakened from her reverie, and looked in surprise at Ye Chong, probably not expecting such a request from him. However, as her vision swept past Ye Chong's right hand, Lunatic Guan's pupils dilated abruptly, and her breathing grew heavier!

Could she have recognized the Red Liquor? This question came to Ye Chong's mind, and his sharp eyes noticed Lunatic Guan's jade white hands trembling a little, a few drops of alcohol spilling out. Almost simultaneously, Ye Chong took a small step forward and reached his right hand out, fast as lightning.

Drip! One of the spilled alcohol drops landed precisely on the Red Liquor in Ye Chong's right hand. In the blink of an eye, the seemingly inconspicuous Red Liquor looked as though it was drunk, and turned slowly into a faint shade of red. This faint shade spread out like a ripple and finally covered the entire surface of the rock. The droplet-shaped Red Liquor now looked like a jade in faint red, warm and adorable.

The transformation did not end there. The red hue turned darker and darker, and in the span of a few minutes, the Red Liquor turned from light red to a ghoulish dark red. The pendant now looked like a drop of fresh blood, moist and dazzling.

With all his attention focused on the Red Liquor, Ye Chong did not notice Lunatic Guan's expression changed drastically as the Red Liquor transformed! Lunatic Guan stared fixedly at the Red Liquor in Ye Chong's hand, her face full of disbelief, and her expression unreadable.

The Red Liquor seemed to come alive in Ye Chong's hand, spreading warmth like a real droplet of semi-coagulated blood. Ye Chong could not but marvel at the sight! Who knew what other secrets the material had to offer?

Just then, Ye Chong smelled a thin, fragrant scent, and froze. Of all the changes that Mu mentioned, this scent was not one of them. Ye Chong held the necklace to his nose. "Hmm, not the pendant. Ah, so it's from the old string. But this smell is really nice, it makes me feel very peaceful." Ye Chong thought to himself.

"Isn't it a nice smell? That string may look inconspicuous, but it's actually made of sky lantern grass, a strong material, and upon contact with heat, it releases a fragrant smell that has a calming effect, and is quite rare!" Lunatic Guan's words came slowly.

"Sky lantern grass?" Ye Chong lifted his head, and was surprised to find Lunatic Guan's face as pale as a sheet, her eyes staring fixedly at the necklace in Ye Chong's hand.

"What's with her?" Ye Chong wondered. While he did not understand the situation, he still noticed something unusual about Lunatic Guan.

"Sky lantern grass is endemic to the planet Guang Hua. The locals treated it as a sign of peace and harmony, and like to use it for decoration. For the alchemists there, it is also an excellent ingredient." Lunatic Guan's soft words reverberated throughout the room, but her eyes never left the necklace on Ye Chong's hand.

Ye Chong offered his hand out and held the necklace before Lunatic Guan.

Lunatic Guan hesitated, as though struggling with herself, the mist in her eyes gradually accumulating to a bursting reservoir, and tears rolled down silently along her pale cheeks. Her lips were now bloodless from her tightened mouth, as she reached out a trembling right hand and slowly approached the necklace held in Ye Chong's right hand.

As the tips of her fingers touched the droplet-shaped Red Liquor, the sensitive Ye Chong noticed her body shook a little. This made Ye Chong fully realize that the necklace and Lunatic Guan had a very deep relationship.

Receiving the necklace from Ye Chong, Lunatic Guan finally could not hold it any longer. Her left hand moved to cover her mouth, and she began to sob.

Ye Chong left quietly.

Back in his room, Ye Chong spoke to Shang.

"Shang, do you know what's going on?" Ye Chong expressed his confusion. Through it all, he understood nothing.

"Based on her actions, she probably has a very deep history with the necklace!" Shang's reply came like a sigh.

"History?" Ye Chong still did not quite understand.

"She's probably some relative of hers."

"Relative? How did you know?" Ye Chong asked in bafflement.

"Sigh, how can you not understand something so simple? Sigh, I suppose so, a guy like you probably will not spend time on watching movies and the like, it's only natural that you cannot understand! However, do you have any better guess?" Shang spoke derisively.

"No!" Ye Chong's answer was brisk.

"And there you have it!"

"Shang, are you sure you're alright?" Ye Chong asked out of concern. As he had gotten used to Shang's usual non-stop blabbering, Shang's quietness now was a little unsettling.

"Problem? Me, having a problem? The probability for that is very small. Even a logical mistake that is fatal for the average PSI is not all that fatal to me. So, about this, you don't have to worry, Ye. As for my current state, that's because I and Mu are trying to recover some damaged data. 90 percent of our resources are currently spent there." Shang explained.

"Damaged data? It is from before?" Ye Chong asked.

"Yes. We found that some of them could potentially be recovered, and so we had tried various methods of recovery, but the results do not seem good!"

"Oh, don't rush yourselves!" Ye Chong could only console them.

Knock knock! The sound came from the door.

With Ye Chong's hearing sense, he could already hear Lunatic Guan's footsteps. Her act of knocking, however, was a surprise to Ye Chong, since barging in seemed more of her style.

Lifting his head, he saw Lunatic Guan entering the room with her eyes red and swollen, with wet tracks on her face. Lunatic Guan came in and immediately questioned, "Where did you get this necklace from?"

"Where did I get it from?" Ye Chong was about to answer, when all of a sudden he realized that his relationship with Guardian would be exposed. Ye Chong reacted vigilantly and opted for silence. Lunatic Guan was not someone he trusted, not like with Hei Zi and the old man.

"Tell me!" Witnessing Ye Chong remaining silent, Lunatic Guan grew anxious.

Ye Chong kept his silence, knowing that this would better serve to protect him.

Something flashed past in Lunatic Guan's eyes, and she spoke in a sigh, "Are you really not telling?"

Planning to keep his silence, Ye Chong suddenly noticed his vision getting more and more blurry, and colors began swirling around as Shang's panicking voice came from somewhere far away. Ye Chong was still in a daze, not realizing what was happening. He was about to call for Shang, but he blacked out.

Lunatic Guan looked at Ye Chong, lying on the floor, and sighed delicately, "Little Ye, I don't want to do this, but if you're not telling, I'll have to make you!"

Lunatic Guan immediately shut all the doors outside and, ignoring Ye Chong on the floor, hastened to the innermost room and removed a few bottles of reagents from the shelves in a corner.

Lunatic Guan focused intently, her hands moving at a dazzling speed. If Ye Chong were awake now, he would definitely be impressed by Lunatic Guan's deft and precise movements. Before long, she had a bottle of light purple reagent before her.

Carefully holding the reagent against the light, she could see a few thin silver lines in the light purple reagent.

"This should be right!" Lunatic Guan muttered to herself.

She dashed towards Ye Chong, crouched beside him, and place the bottle of reagent before Ye Chong's nose before removing the bottle cap. Light purple mist rose from the opening, scattered with fine silver sparkles. The mist swirled like an enchanted snake and found its way into Ye Chong's nostrils.

Lunatic Guan's misted eyes flashed with regret, but it was immediately replaced by certain determination.

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Chapter 146: A Gift from Lunatic Guan

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Ye Chong forced his eyes open… his pounding head felt heavier than the meteorite. It was cracking so hard that he could literally hear the cracking sound in his head. "Ow…" He managed to get up, though laboriously he did, as he attempted to get his mind clearer, he shook his head forcefully like swinging the wrecking ball.

"I did not expect you to stay in one piece. Such miracle," teased Shang.

"The heck happened, Shang?" Holding his throbbing head, he expressed his doubt in his mind right away.

"Mhm, it's a pity for I don't have much information regarding this in my databank so I can't give you an explanation, although she did leave you with something, a gift, perhaps it could be an aid for you. Tsk, tsk, tsk, Ye, your alertness had been degrading quite badly these few days. Don't tell me it was because of a lack of stimulation of bloodiness for your bloodthirsty self? Yikes, you are indeed a beast who lived on its instincts, Ye. I did not see it coming, the day where you actually get snuck upon by a lass. Tsk, tsk, tsk, oh my Fal galaxy, please don't tell me you actually had some chemistry occurred between her inside you? Hmm, even though this is quite understandable, I think…" The motivational talk had commenced once again, under the supreme enlightenment of Shang…

Ye Chong tried standing up. It was supposed to be a simple action yet it was so energy consuming that he almost collapsed again. The heck in Orbits that Lunatic Guan had done to me? I could not move a muscle… I could not feel my strength. Waking up seemed to be the greatest challenge ever to Ye Chong currently.

His eyes discerned a piece of microchip laying on the table nearby. That should be it, the gift which Lunatic Guan left for Ye Chong, as mentioned by Shang. He grabbed the chip and inserted it into the processor sitting at one spot of the room. A visual of Lunatic Guan was projected on the hologram after that.

"Oh, my Little Ye, my Ye boy, *Zzt* I simply did not foresee these much of surprise from you. Mhm, I had gotten what I wanted to know from your mouth. *Zzt* Thank you again, Ye my boy. If it wasn't you, I would have taken forever to find my beloved sister. *Zzzt* The good old me is in search of my younger sister now! *Zzzzt*

Zzzt* Hehehe, Ye, my sweet, my lovely, you are greater than I had ever expected. Looks like I had really underestimated you way too much. *Zzzt* Kekeke, you know it by heart, that I always have something for potent men like you. *Zzzt*

Regarding that necklace, don't worry, *Zzzzt* I'll have it, in exchange for a little~gift~ I left~ for my s-w-e-e-t Ye boy~ You would love it! *Zzzt* Yes, yes, I finally got some clues on my sister's whereabouts and I'm not letting it slip through my fingers. *Zzzt* Also, Ye, again, thank you for saving my sister, even though you did not intend to save her.

Zzzt* Lastly… Hmmm, what should I say to conclude this love letter to my boy? Okay.

Take care, my juicy fruity pie! *Zzzt* Oh, I almost forgot, I hope that you would learn from your lesson after this. Always be alert when you're facing ones from the Alchemy, *Zzzt* be it like an old but charming lady like me, promise me, okay? Kekekekekekekekekekeke!"

Lunatic Guan was holding her glass in the visual, cheekily she swung her glass, a gesture for her version of "cheers" to end her regards. The visual was immediately terminated afterwards. And right when Ye Chong was going to leave, Zzzt! The processor prompted, "More data has been discovered, perform Reading?"

Ye Chong was stupefied at first and he quickly regained himself, "Yes. Perform Reading!"

Reading…

1% ))))) 15% ))))) 40% ))))) 75% ))))) 100%

Reading complete!

Ye Chong finally understood what the so-called "gift" from Lunatic Guan was after the processor had done playing everything. The chip generally contained the entire syllabus of the Alchemy course for Ye Chong, with every single section prepared wholeheartedly by Lunatic Guan herself. And Ye Chong, without doubt, could master the course all by himself with the help of this chip, although… "Man, this is quite a long course…" The size of the syllabus was beyond his expectation, it was large… larger than Trash Planet Ye Chong assumed, for one second. He hurriedly skimmed through the course structure and he reached for the eject button, "Hold up!" Lunatic Guan's visual jumped at him.

What else does she want to tell? Ye Chong's head was jammed with bewilderment.

Unlike the visual before, the Lunatic Guan in the hologram this time was sterner than her usual self, "Little Ye, technically, I actually did not have the intention of providing you the following information… but you are my only student, my only apprentice to my succession while you seemed to be in quite a sticky situation. Thus, I decided to keep this for you, although I'm not certain if it would be useful for you, hopefully it would at least. However, there's one thing you have to remember by heart, likewise to my other advice before, this is equally important - do not, never ever be overly dependent on it. The only thing you could depend on is the knowledge you mastered all by yourself, no aid, no shortcut, nothing else. You have great talents, I must admit. If you keep up the good works, you would one day indeed, surpass me and become the best chemist in history of alchemy. Kek… though I don't think I'll live to witness that…" Her smile was bitter, bitter than the white wine on a funeral night.

"I know, Ye my boy, you want to leave the Orbits. Kekekeke, wonder why would I know? Well, you would know it after learning everything I have tailored for you. If you got out successfully, yes, Ye my boy, 'if' you got out, could you please… do this good old me a favor, head to L. Shaft City on Planet Guang Hua for me? It's Line Shaft City in full… And remember! It must be done only after you finished my course. While… for me… I don't think I would ever be able to leave this place… My only last wish was to see my sister again. Mhm, Little Ye, may the odds be with both of us! Oh yeah, please don't forget to tell your master the formulae of the strengthening liquids he wanted, that was probably what he really expected you to learn from me anyway! Don't disappoint him!"

The voice of her last syllable trailed off as the visual vanished instantly. Beep. A window prompted on the processor, "The Guan's Automatic Analysis Mechanism has been activated. Please insert the main ingredient and final request."

Ye Chong's eyes were fixed at the demonstration on the hologram in blank dismay.

"Fantastic! Magnifique! Ye, this Lady Guan is marvelous! See! Ye, like what I had told you earlier, Lady Guan is absolutely a beauty who wields both appearance and wisdom! Tsk, tsk, tsk, I can't believe there are humans able to produce such a self-analytical system. Genius I must say! And very gorgeous too! Ye, how many times have I suggested you before? You should have hooked up with her! But did you listen to me? Nooooo! Great, guess what? Such a bright and demure lady had gone to nowhere! Tell me where are you going to find a replacement?" Shang sounded truly agonized in his tone…

The words obviously did not go through Ye Chong's mind. In actuality, he was utterly dumbfounded by the invention, as never once in his life he would see someone being able to make something like this, especially when it was based on expertise of alchemy. And no chemist gain their skillfulness from text books, they have and always have been gaining it from experience, since a majority of the concept behind the working of alchemy was unknown to mankind, they could solely depend on their experience to identify a certain kind of pattern, formula, combination that would work in consistency. And this was why those ancient families of aristocrats stood a better chance to dig much deeper into this profession than the folks, as their forebears had accumulated much more experience as well as expertise throughout the ages.

The program before Ye Chong however, had broken the thumb rule of the field. Ye Chong could be a total illiterate towards the workaround of processor but for the basic fundamentality of it, he knew it better than anybody else. This program was unquestionably the outcome of a kind of calculation, with basis on a kind of known theory, an identified pattern, a string of formula and they were clear, clear enough to run a program. If it was a fuzzy theory founded by experience, there would be no way for a motherboard-and-circuits to process it and provide calculated judgement based on requests.

How would such innovation not shock our Ye Chong? Right when everyone else in the galaxy assumed how a chemist was built upon experience than knowledge, this half-drunken, half-mad, half-conscious drinker namely Lunatic Guan had already hit the core of the whole profession!

"Mhm… Ye. So she wanted you to go to Planet Guang Hua. By common sense, that should be where her home was located. Well, Ye, how about we just hit the road, get to her place and see if there were any close relative like her sisters for instance, be them younger or elder, you could consider taking them if they were not bad. Sigh… By the way, such a perfect lass isn't something you could see on the street everyday, Ye… Gosh, my heart, my pitiful heart, all shattered into a milky way of depression," he carried on his own play, Shang cried out in pain.

"Hmm, so how does this mechanism work? I wonder…"

Those cheesy lines did not reach Ye Chong though.

Ye Chong was excited after the shock. He could not wait to validate the capability of the mechanism, as he connected the processor to the analysis system as instructed by the manual.

"There's always one thing I wanted to know," muttered Ye Chong as he pulled out the Do-Kun stone from his belongings. As what Mu Shang had stated before, this stone was certainly rare and chances were Lunatic Guan might had never come across such piece before. Only an unknown sample could effectively trial the applicability of the Guan's automatic analysis mechanism.

The moment he took the stone out, the room was tinted by its ever-changing color and glow with a kind of fluidity.

He carefully placed it into the machine and he selected Cultivation with Presets at the Cultivation Methodology section, with the final request being "to achieve growth".

Tick. Tick Tick! Beep!

The machine started running as few mechanical sounds were heard, a variety of data were refreshing rapidly. Sadly like Lunatic Guan had mentioned, he had yet mastered the very gist of alchemy, he only managed to recognize the meanings of a few variables shown in the data. The mechanism was running and morphing… And Ye Chong had the slightest idea on what was going on. "The only thing you could depend on is the knowledge you mastered all by yourself, no aid, no shortcut, nothing else," Lunatic Guan's voice echoed in his head. Well it seemed like there was assuredly a need to master the syllabus in the chip. Ye Chong made up his mind.

Beep Beep Beep. Beep.

10 minutes or so had lapsed, the morphing process in the program finally ended. A result was projected on the screen along with mechanical voices briefing the content, "Request achievable. Ingredients required : Kong Stone, Milles Radices(grass), Sand of Rolling Tides, Softening Factor #13, Fique Crystal…"

Ye Chong had no idea what he had just heard, as his eyes went large like saucers. Other than the softening factor, the remaining materials sounded alien to him. No way he would be able to validate the reliability of the machine under a scenario like this.

Nonetheless, the fact that the mechanism was able to produce such result was convincing enough to Ye Chong.

After a bit of pondering, he was still keen to insert the entire content of this chip right into Mu Shang. Imagine if he accidentally dropped it somewhere someday, there would be no cure for him to remedy his tormenting regrets.

Judging by Lunatic Guan's words, it seemed like she had known quite a few stuffs about Ye Chong himself. The heck happened? Ye Chong was left in the dark. He was only sure of the fact that that bottle of Red Liquor had something to do with Lunatic Guan. She said she was in search of her sister… Could that Zhu Ling, the girl he met that day be her younger sister? Ye Chong tried to recall the impression she left in his mind… but then… "Man, it's like two different persons from a total different corner of galaxy… are you sure they are related…?"

Ye Chong deployed Shang and rolled into the cabin. He inserted the chip right into the processor next, since to Ye Chong, there was no other safe place like Shang's databank in this world.

"So Shang…" Ye Chong initiated, "What had happened when I was unconscious?"

Mu Shang had always been conscious all times, everything in Ye Chong's surrounding would never escape their detection.

"See it yourself. I can't explain it," said Shang as he played back the imagery he detected.

The hologram was of high-definition, crystal-clear it was in recording everything that had happened to Ye Chong. In the visual, Ye Chong suddenly collapsed… That was the moment Lunatic Guan stormed into the room and had produced a very strange kind of purple reagent. And Ye Chong was very confident that he did not recognize that reagent. He then saw Lunatic Guan hung the tube of reagent right below his nose.

And that was when the creepiest moment happened. Ye Chong, despite being unconscious, sat up, in the state of trance, his eyes were soulless and Lunatic Guan began asking a few questions. Ye Chong answered all her inquiries sincerely and immediately. Throughout the process, Ye Chong looked empty on his expression, his eyes zoned out completely, literally like a puppet on strings. His mouth would utter the answer obediently.

Creepy! This is too creepy!

The visual sent chills down to his spines. He could blatantly feel goosebumps came rolling all over his body uncontrollably, while his head was running cold.

This is too scary!

Chapter 147: Fading Out

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

It was the first time Ye Chong witnessed the potency of a chemist. And he was the lab rat too, which was not really a glory experience to be remembered, though he did not lose anything specific during the process. In spite of the fact that he was barely injured, he still was quite dismal, as he truly disliked such sensation of being not the master of his own life for once. The worst part was, the incident had justified the truth that his alertness had dropped this harshly. If he was able to deploy Shang in the nick of time, it would have turned out to be a total different story, yet out of ignorance and hesitation he forsook the very last opportunity to make a turnabout in this.

Well, self-reflection aside, Ye Chong indeed had to make a change in his original plan. Formerly, Ye Chong simply planned to learn alchemy, the basic from Lunatic Guan at least. Then he would try applying a trial at the Sanctuary to make way out of the Orbits. Assuming he failed the trial, he would plan for an alternative. The catch was none other than exiting the Orbits itself. The Orbits, as everyone had known before, was a place one could enter easily but not a place one could also exit at ease. Every spaceship that had entered the proximity of the Orbits would be locked up by the Sanctuary. Some may suggest to leave without a spaceship, but those were the dreamers who had no idea what retardation in the Haleyson they had just suggested. Even if Ye Chong made it back to Red Giant, the outermost planet of the Orbits, it would still be far-fetched as the closest course to the outside was long abandoned. You could try waiting at the spot for a spaceship to pass by but the probability would be lower than seeing a meteor shower in a black hole. You would die before the spaceship appeared, if it would ever appear that is.

And the situation had changed drastically for Ye Chong. He had to advance the date of application trial.

Lunatic Guan had utterly destroyed the entire databank in all processors at her place before she left. It was saddening for Ye Chong as the destruction also involved the apparatuses and reagents for the professionals. They might not be some rare stuffs like the Do Kun stone, but Ye Chong understood the fact that utensils and chemicals this many would easily cost him an arm and a leg. And sadly Ye Chong had never tasted the dazzling pouches of fortune before to afford these again.

He made his way back to the old man's home and informed him that Lunatic Guan had left. "Well…" The old man sighed, "She is also a person of misfortune." That was the only statement coming from the old man, who seemed to know something in the dark. Ye Chong did not muster sufficient curiosity to further inquire about it however.

"This is the formula for the strengthening liquid," said Ye Chong as he took out a piece of chip.

"Pass it to Hei Zi," waved the old man as he turned away and continued working on his task at the board.

Easier said than done… Hei Zi's understanding was truthfully terrible as he remained in confusion even after Ye Chong gave him the exact formula to produce the liquids. "Can't help it…" Ye Chong eventually taught him on how to produce the strengthening liquid repetitively.

As usual, they had a dinner that night. Nan Nan was giggling while chewing her food. She was so happy to see her Big Brother returning. She could not stop telling Ye Chong how much she missed him.

…

In the middle of the night, Ye Chong took a look around this heartwarming place. Little Nan Nan should be in her dream, chasing the bad doggie away maybe, while Hei Zi… wonder what he was doing… and the old man, he should be rushing his work at the workshop underground. Amidst silence he put a chip containing basic mech mechanic theories on the table. This was the only thing useful to Hei Zi he believed he could have left him. And on top of Little Nan Nan's bed, Ye Chong quietly placed a red bone hat, which every layer of painting coated, every piece of bones connected was by his own hands.

"Ye, are you sure you aren't biding farewell to them?" asked Shang softly.

"Yeah, I'm good," Ye Chong replied flatly as he turned away from home, walked into the darkness, heading to the nearest Sanctuary.

"Why… Why not?"

"…" No word was heard from Ye Chong, as he hurried his way.

… …

"Hmmm…" Lied on the bed, Yan Bingxuan was reviewing the entire incident. Rather restless he had been, as the operation of finding out the rumored thief to the Sanctuary before had caused chaos in the Orbits. And on top of that, the thief rumored by the insiders had yet to be caught, while there was a new rumor recently, claiming that a pilot had been murdered by the thief himself. He was amazed however, considering how great the thief was for he was able to steal things from the Sanctuary, managed to escape in grace from the Sanctuary while keeping the insiders of the Sanctuary this worked up to capture him. He should be no commoner. Frankly speaking, he did not really believe that rumor of pilot inside the Sanctuary being killed. He had tried applying being a pilot of the Sanctuary back then and of course, he failed miserably. Pathetically he only managed to become a patrolman at the area in the end. How could the pilots, the chosen one after the tedious trials, be slaughtered this effortlessly? Thought so in disdain, no way the specialized pilots would be overcome by a trash from the outside.

Nonetheless, thanks to that thief, if it was not because of the search that time, I would never know that filthy goat Ge had actually gotten an apprentice himself! Yan Bingxuan thought of that fine young man. He might be a bit slender compared to the blacksmith in the Orbits, but he was absolutely a talent for the skeleton artistry. Yan Bingxuan did not foresee this filthy stubborn old man was capable of finding such a good apprentice. Hehe, this is a kind young man indeed, for he actually gave me such a big gift. Up to this time, I remembered the face of the authority when they received those 3 mechs. Rumor said that the mechs were even tested out by the ace of the Sanctuary, the famous Madam Feng Su herself. Such an honor! Ge that old goat said this was just the mech in production. But even a mech in production gave me promotion 3 times in a row. Everyone was eyeing me with envy! Thinking so, the patrolman was proud. Such a lovely hen that laid the golden eggs. I must keep this old hen carefully if I want to prosper. Yang Bingxuan could already see his bright future glowing in the twinkles of Venuses, as he drooled in greed.

But dammit I must say, it seemed like there's a quota to my luck! And apparently I had ran out of luck! Right after I got promoted as a chief patrol, things happened at my place! A traitor from the elite group had sneaked to my area and caused havoc. That traitor actually got rid of my entire team, escaped and killed one of the pilots! Goddammit! Had this world really changed? We now could see a traitor in the Sanctuary? And the traitor was also the nobility from the elite group? Had this traitor gone nuts?

Elite group, gasp, the elite group… It even gave Yan Bingxuan a shudder from thinking of how the person was from the elite group alone. That is a freaking monster from the elite group! And I am nothing but a little patrolman who could barely swear at a gangster on a train platform! I would be gashed upon immediately and become a filler of its bloody fangs! Yan Bingxuan was definitely a tough-looking guy outside, but he was a delicate boy inside. And most people would be deceived at first glimpse. He was alarmed especially after seeing the team of Dawn mechs who came to his aid. He could not imagine how a powerful mech these many could barely catch even a piece of the foe. Seriously, he was glad that he never encountered that monster alone.

The Dawn mechs eventually retreated with an follow-up order from the higher-ups, "Stay alert! Any happening, report us at first moment." Patrolman Yan was well-aware of the order. He was the obedient listener, the Mr. Yes in the team. He did not give a damn in reality however. I'm not that stupid to stay at the deck when the ship is sinking. My life goes before anything else!

The havoc has been resolved now… and I could rest for a bit. I know, I know, I had ranked up too quickly. Everyone is pissed, everyone is waiting to see me humiliated. If I don't be a little bit more careful, I'll be kicked off my seat and be wheeling down the hill.

Now, let the patrolman get his rest…

Phew…

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Just when he thought he could catch his breath for a second, the communicator on the table rang. A hiccup occurred inside him for some reason. He did not feel right with the incoming call.

"H…Hello. Yes…"

…

"What?" He was ultimately shocked by the report from his subordinates.

… …

This was the first time Ye Chong paid the local Sanctuary a visit. The building was not dramatically adorned and appeared to be a house made out of bricks, like most of the residences in the Orbits, just that the Sanctuary was much larger in comparison. The walls outside were layered by some unknown vines of fresh greenness, which gave the building a sense of Mother Nature.

He arrived at the lobby after the entrance. There were 4 pillars standing at the center of the lobby and similar to the walls outside, they were all covered up in vines of the same kind too. The lobby appeared to be rather spacious as not many people were there. Judging by how the communicator was the only hi-tech thing in the lobby, it looked like the Sanctuary was resistant towards technologies… Mumbled Ye Chong in his mind.

A counter sat right at the opposite of the entrance. A young man was at the counter and he seemed… to be… asleep? Habitually Ye Chong's steps fell so light that the man did not sense his existence even when he was standing right beside the counter.

"Such a lazy bum. Show some respect to your own occupation will you?" Shang commented in dissatisfaction.

Ye Chong lifted his finger and knocked on the table twice.

"Aagrnanlxz!" The sleeping beauty had been waken up, in shock, as he mumbled some gibberish, rubbing his bleary eyes and took a look around in astonishment. The eyes of the sloth converged at Ye Chong at last. "Agoanmdwe!" Another gibberish as he jumped up from his seat, realizing he was on a duty at the moment. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry… Sir… Sir… I wonder if you have anything I could help you with?" Seemingly the young man was new at this Sanctuary, seeing how he retained that shunning humbleness in him.

Practically the young man was intrigued too, since people rarely visited the Sanctuary. The visitors mostly would be some mentalist or mentalist-pilots, coming for work, while the man before him was obviously neither of them. He might be a novice patrolman at the Sanctuary, he still could spot the difference. Mentalist would always put on a green clothing while the pilots would be in their tidy pilot uniforms instead, with an expression of pride. The visiting man had none of those, he was showing indifference… which looked like those old mentalists… but he was not wearing any pale green clothing that the young man could know of.

Moreover, it was midnight. What in the Orbits would this man come to the Sanctuary at a timing like this? Very curious, the young man was curious.

"I would like to apply for the Level 5 trial at the sanctuary," his request came flatly.

"What?" Boomed the young man, in panic he responded, "Ah. Um, oh, uh, a moment please." The young man clumsily stampeded towards the communicator at the side and rang to the chief patrolman. Stuttering he reported to chief.

Ye Chong's sensitive hearing had heard every single word uttered by the young man. He found that avoidant eye contact and shrinking posture of the young man while on the communicator to be quite interesting.

"Such a scaredy cat. You could have tried acting professional," Shang gave another disdainful remark.

Yang Bingxuan piloted his mech and rushed all the way to the Sanctuary. No doubt his curiosity aroused by surprise was nothing lower than young man on duty. Ye Chong and Shang on the other hand did not get all the hassle and drama occurring around them, since they did not have an idea on what a Level 5 Trial actually was. And Yang Bingxuan, being a patrolman for the past 10 few years, had his first time witnessing someone requesting a Level 5 Trial. Back in the days when the Level 5 Trial was first introduced at the Sanctuary, people flooded the center to apply. At the eg, only 2 persons had passed; the following year had one before and nobody else after! That was the time when people realized how challenging it was to pass the trial. "Don't even think about it if you aren't even the master in your field!" said everyone upon mentioning the trial, which was the direct cause to the drastic decrease in applicants of the following years.

So one year, Yang Bingxuan took over as the patrolman and… well, no one had ever come and apply for the trial. He did overhear stories of one doctor applying for the trial few years back from the other area, though he was disqualified at the very last day.

Whoever desired to be an applicant must have not only the courage but also the great confidence in his or her own capabilities. "When in the Orbits did we even have those kinds of people in our area? And I don't even know them?" Yang Bingxuan was dying to know.

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Chapter 148: Question

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Yan Bingxuan pushed the door open. A rather willowy silhouette was on his feet at the vacant Sanctuary lobby. He struck Yan Bingxuan as being familiar but… the patrolman could not recall whom the silhouette reminded him of. This should be the one applying for Level 5 Trial I supposed? But why does this man look no stranger to me? Yan Bingxuan felt weird…

"Good day!" The young man got up gracelessly upon seeing Yan Bingxuan, "Chief!" The salutation went courteously.

As a response, the chief nodded in dignity as he trotted towards Ye Chong. All the time he had been wondering what in the Orbits a man sought such trial with difficulty at such a timing and "Ah!" Yan Bingxuan was astonished when he recognized who the applicant was as he got closer.

"Good day," nodded Ye Chong in respect as he greeted, "Uncle Yan."

"Oh it's Ye, my little blacksmith in training." His expression turned gentle right away, "What's with the visit on such a late night? Do you have anything in request? Do word it if you wish. I would not treat your request with informality, as long as it's within my capabilities," he smiled as he spoke, yet his inside was screaming in terror, for elderly's sake don't tell me this is the applicant for the Level 5 Trial!

"Thank you for your kind words. Yes, I do have something to do," responded Ye Chong, "I would like to apply for the Level 5 Trial at the Sanctuary," he said calmly.

"Le-Level 5 Trial?" Pretentiously the patrolman reacted with shock as he spoke on in flowery concern, "What had made our blacksmith think of the Level 5 Trial so suddenly? Was it a little bit too early for now? So you wanted to leave the Orbits? Oh, Little Ye, Little Little Ye, did you bump into some troubles recently? If you did, you could have told me everything! I'll solve it for you! If anyone with blind eyes had offended you, tell your Uncle Yan and let your Uncle Yan to settle him for ya, all for justice, for our boy." The gravel had been slammed on the table of his Honor, undoubtedly the patrolman was very much not delightful of this request. Ye Chong was a hen that laid golden eggs! Nobody would be delightful to see their money-printing machine simply flying away!

But then, regarding how Ye Chong had the desire to leave the Orbits, he did not express much worries. Psh, you want to pass the Level 5 Trial of the Sanctuary? What do you think this is? Playing house? How long have you been with Ge that old goat? How much have you learned? And you wanted to pass Level 5? In your dreams, boy. Not even your master, that old goat could pass if he came and applied for it!

In his opinion, Ye Chong's failure was inevitable, though it would be another story regarding if he would return to his area afterwards… All he was concerned about was if Ye Chong wanted to leave his area, there would be no way for him to stop that from happening. Ye Chong had yet mentioned this but obviously this had become a bad beginning for him.

"No, uncle. I just wanted to apply," Ye Chong did not change his mind.

"Ye, boy, you got to think it through. Don't be hot-headed in this. You do have the bravery to try challenging the trial but you must know that you would be given punishment if you failed the trial accordingly. And chances are you would regret it for the rest of your life! So you have to be really, really sure you wanted to take on the trial. Why don't you head home and discuss it with your master first?" It would be pointless for him to beat around the bush at that moment, he decided to go straight to the point instead.

"Oh, save the discussion. I'm making an application now." Ye Chong's expression remained unchanged, probably was not because of how he was confident on passing the trial but how he simply did not have any other choice. The killing syndrome inside him had been inactive for quite sometimes. Maybe it was due to the effect after learning meditation or it was due to his mere luck. There could be a cure everywhere else but not here. Only if he would leave the Orbits as soon as possible, the syndrome could be eliminated. And the single thing that stood in his way out was this trial. So, by hook or by crook, he would take on the test.

The patrolman was helpless in stopping Ye Chong, since beating around the bush and ordering him straight up did not work at all. He did not dare to try doing anything funny ever since, considering how the Sanctuary had been treating the applicants very solemnly. He could be skewed if he tried to fiddle with Ye Chong! Well, he could not understand the whole point of setting up an unnecessary trial for residents to exit in the very first place. This was not only unnecessary, but also would cause the reduction in the number of talents within the Orbits. Those who could succeed in the Level 5 Trial must be the greatest master in their fields. And the Sanctuary was letting these people to leave the place? Would that not be a major loss to the Orbits itself? Ugh, I seriously don't get it, I wonder which elderly had hit on his head to make such a flawed system.

Of course, these rants were just rumbling inside the patrolman, no way he would have the courage to spit them out.

Seeing how determined Ye Chong looked, the patrolman could only do as he requested. He begged to the Orbits that Ye Chong would fail the trial and stay here after… "Hah!" he laughed as he went tapping Ye Chong's shoulders, "You are a young man indeed, having the drive to overcome everything in sight! Uncle Yan certainly admires fine young man like you! Never mind, it's okay if you failed, you could try it again. As long as you are here, Uncle Yan would be positive of this!"

Ye Chong reflexively dodged the his hands at first, but that would look really rude, so he pulled himself back roughly in the end and let the tapping happen. "Thank you Uncle Yan." His face was grim. "A moment please, my boy!" He headed to the communicator.

"Yes, good evening, sire!" Yan Bingxuan reported to the higher-up through the communicator, mentioning there was an applicant currently at the lobby. "Okay, Ye. All set!" Shut the communicator, he turned to Ye Chong, "The authority would send a spaceship to pick you up later. I'm not sure where exactly they would trial you, but the men on the spaceship should be telling you what to do."

Ye Chong nodded his head in understanding. The Level 5 Trial did look like not a simple test indeed, as the location was not known to everyone, not even the insiders at the Sanctuary. Intriguing… the reason behind this.

Ye Chong picked a chair nearby and sat down. The wooden chair was unexpectedly not as comfy as the cheapest chair in the 5 major galaxies. And Ye Chong spent the next 3 hours on such chair, which was impressive to the patrolman as Ye Chong had barely changed his posture ever since. It was a rare sight to see an active young man like Ye Chong being able to be this undisturbed and patient. I do expect much from you, Ye. You would one day become something.

Certainly Ye Chong was calm, he had been exchanging words with Shang inside his head. "You see, love is a kind of necessity in everyone's life and the only necessity in the history of humankind to be able to replace eating, drinking or even sleeping." Shang was performing a kind of "mentality modification" inside Ye Chong, or in his language, "paradigm rebirth". Ye Chong would be naturally disinterested of it, but it did become an average entertainment while waiting for his ride.

"Ye, tsk, tsk. You understood my words?" Shang grew excited as he saw how the mechanical boy finally showing interests to his affectionate insights of life, he started to get more elaborative over the time, he would includes stories, quotations and even a play during his lecture, which Ye Chong found out quite a number of weird stuffs inside… Like in stories Shang had told, those capable men must have a woman at his back. Mhm, some of them even have more than one woman at the back. Well, that… that'd be weird. Why must a man have a woman at the back? I don't have a woman at my back you see. But I'm not dead and I'm kicking alive! Oh, is it a kind of timed bomb in humanity? A hidden threat I couldn't see? Hmm… Which field though, Shang, the biology? Or medical biology?

Asked Ye Chong sincerely to Lecturer Shang.

"Ts…" Shang lost the mood to tease, as he sounded depressed, "Ye… How could man live without a woman?" His words were coated with oily tears, "How could a man still be a man without woman? Biology? Medical biology? Screw those stupid pigs! I had never ever heard of this crap in my life. How would this be related with biology or medical biology? Ye, this is instinct, the nature of humanity! Nature! Instinct! Do you even understand what those words mean? What? You! You are a beast! You are a bloody beast! …"

Ye Chong did not compute the dramatized words from Shang … am I not a human? Other than the strange fact that I don't really get muscles, my anatomy looked exactly like a human… but why would Shang say I'm a beast? Gasp… Mu did a better explanation at my inquiries, simple, straightforward and would never be misleading, unlike Shang. I sometimes wish he could speak English.

At least the in-depth discussion worked like a charm. Those difficult wordings from Shang made Ye Chong felt time flew. He did not feel the boredom of anticipation, even if he was good at it. Waiting was never a pleasing experience to anyone.

The spaceship had arrived to pick him up.

It parked right at the outside of the Sanctuary. A pale green spaceship it was. It did not have a metallic texture, it looked more like a spaceship made out of plants. The design of the spaceship struck Ye Chong however, as it looked similar to Gliding Joy he had designed for full speed before, just that it was much bigger in size, not as narrow as Gliding Joy. The placement of the engine was also different, it was installed at the end of the spaceship, unlike Gliding Joy which had its engine at the front.

It was a kind of miniature spaceship and it could take on 3 passengers at most. A meaty man hopped off the cabin and walked towards Ye Chong and Yan, "May I ask, which one of you is Mr. Ye Chong?" Ye Chong observed the man quietly as he made remarks regarding his physique. No doubt the body was of top quality and had undergone systematic training. His eyes were sharp, he should be a man in combats. Ye Chong was right. Inside this miniature spaceship there were two other men, one being the pilot and mechanic, the other being combat squad member for security enforcement.

"Me," answered Ye Chong briefly.

The buffed man was slightly astonished by Ye Chong's appearance. He took a glance and the apparent age was surprising to him. But he reacted professionally, "Greetings, Mr. Ye Chong." He reached his hand out politely, "I am sent by the Sanctuary to escort you to the venue for the Level 5 Trial." He gestured next, "Please get on board now."

"Okay." Ye Chong nodded and he stepped into the spaceship right away.

The beefy man rolled into the cabin and got into his position. He made a nod to the pilot and the spaceship zoomed into the sky.

The man had hardly spoken a word with Yan Bingxuan back on the ground.

Ye Chong got to his seat and took a look around the interior of the spaceship. It was rather crammed for a spaceship. There was no window for one to check the outside. To preserve the space, there seemed to be nothing else than some basic facilities inside the spaceship. No adornment, no fancy speaker, no tray, no bar.

Ye Chong estimated the maximum distance the spaceship could travel and calculated the success rate of hi-jacking and escaping with the ship. "Negative," he concluded, the spaceship was solely for short distance travel and it could not perform a space warp apparently. And he could never leave the Orbits without using the space warp mechanism.

Well, does that mean the venue of the trial is pretty close to the Orbits? The Sanctuary actually sent a miniature spaceship to pick me up? Wondered Ye Chong soundlessly, as according to what he was aware of, there was no sound base nearby for a spaceship to stop by!

Then where the heck are we heading to?

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Chapter 149: Onto the Nast!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The spaceship travelled steadily. "Shang… Shang!" Called Ye Chong in his mind, "Check out the course we are traveling… and detect the surrounding while you are at it!" exhorted Ye Chong.

"What…" yawned Shang.

"Don't worry. Already doing it. Don't have to remind me," spoke Shang slothfully.

The two men from the Sanctuary had presented excellent discipline. They had not even uttered a word ever since Ye Chong got in. So Ye Chong decided to close his eyes and have his mind rested for the moment.

They had already traveled for 30 minutes. The pilot was indeed outstanding at his skills. The spaceship traveled in consistent stability and the orbit did not fluctuate just because it was an easily-flipped miniature spaceship.

"Yawn…" Shang's voice came laboriously, "Ye, there's a major spaceship coming ahead. Would you like to hear more about it?"

Ye Chong could feel the obvious deceleration of the spaceship right at that moment. "Hmm." he pondered and replied, "Never mind. Just keep an eye on it. Shang, do you notice anything peculiar of that ship?"

"Peculiar? What do you expect? A ship filled with lassies? Wait, let me scan this ship and… Hm?" Shang choked his word out of sudden.

"What was it?" Ye Chong was shocked.

"This spaceship is in-built with jammers. My signals were all dispersed and I could not perform any kind of detection. The armor of the spaceship was made out of strange metals too. Ye, have a nice trip and good luck. Heh!" Shang acted helpless as he stated. Even though there was no screen to view Shang's expression, Ye Chong did somehow have an urge to punch this metallic junk back to Trash Planet. But of course it was just an urge, there was always a time and place for that but not now, simply not now. Their difference in strength was still there, Ye Chong understood that this would be just another round of Shang flaunting his strength if he would ever raise his fist.

"Ye, we are heading into the inside of the spaceship." He might be a joker, but he still informed Ye Chong everything he detected.

Ye Chong felt the inertia not too long later. The spaceship jerked and stopped.

"Mr. Ye, you may get off board now," invited the beefy man on the assistant pilot seat.

He got off the ship and took a glance at where he was.

As what Shang had stated before, this should be the interior of the spaceship. He landed on a dock apparently. Its full metallic texture emphasized its steadiness and security. There were numerous other platforms at the same axis of his. And every platform was connected with a metallic bridge about a size that could fit two persons. At the other end of the bridge there lay a round pale green sealed gate.

The moment Ye Chong got off the ship, he spotted a lady standing by the bridge. And of course… "Ye! Ye! Ye!" The signature Shang's commentary began… with his dramatic hurrah out of amazement, "Wowie, would you look at that Ye? It's a beauty! Quick, move your stupid eyes there! It's a beauty standing there and she wants you to check her out! I never knew there would be a beauty on a metallic cold ship like this! I'm such a fortunate one! My life is completed! Gosh! Oh seniorita… Tsk, tsk, tsk, look at that, Ye, look at that! That well-sculptured face of hers, that expressive eyes of hers, that curvy-as-her-body nose of hers, that sparkling cherry lips of hers, that wavy glossy hair of hers. Mhm, mhm, mhm! This should be a gentle, loving sweetie! Ye, let me tell you, a lass like this would be the best for marriage. Look at that extra THIC-"

Ye Chong's mind:? Ignore

The very first moment Shang shrieked, he decided to shut down his senses. Sometimes he really wondered if Shang would state someone being a beauty as long as that someone was biologically a female. Ye Chong tried to check this girl out with his viewpoint.

I'll pass. This is not a female in combats. That was the first conclusion he got after a glance.

The arms were slender and tender as hell, like the twirling noodles he saw in the hot pot back then. He seriously doubted if those arms could take 10% of his usual strength. There were no callus… no cuts… While for the physique, it was completely covered under that oversized one piece of hers, so Ye Chong could not tell. Her long hair reached her waist, waving as she moved. No fighter would have the hair this long. This would be dangerous in combats, it could even kill them! And her posture, what's with her posture? She was standing with her hands crossed in front of her body. Any sane fighter would keep their hands always at the sides, letting it down naturally so they could react to any sort of casualties in time. That oversized one piece was a failure, it did not benefit the combats. Most fighters would prefer tights instead.

"Good day, Mr. Ye. Welcome on board to Nast. I am Wei Xi, your attendant. I'll be taking care of your everything before the Level 5 Trial. May you have a good trip," bowed Wei Xi, she looked serene but Ye Chong could see the shock flashing in her eyes the moment she saw him.

"I see. Thank you," nodded Ye Chong as he replied monotonously.

Shang should be having short-circuits in his system, "Oh… *Zzzt* my *Zzzt* … That voice! That angelic voice!"

"It's my pleasure to serve you sir. Please follow me," beamed Wei Xi at Ye Chong, she turned away and walked towards the sealed gate in pale green. Ye Chong followed her closely.

A corridor was behind the gate. It was a long corridor lit all the way to the end by a row of white lights on the ceiling. It looked quite refreshing for some reason.

Wei Xi gradually slowed her steps and let Ye Chong walk by her side.

She turned her face to Ye Chong, "I simply did not expect Mr. Ye to be this young." Dimpled as she spoke on, "It was surprising to me."

"Oh," flatly Ye Chong's reply came, "really?" His expression was unchanged.

"Well, yes. Other than the doctor we attended last time for the trial, the rest of the applicants were of age above 30. From my observation, Mr. Ye, you should be not even 20 I suppose? Yet you have the courage to face the Level 5 Trial. Impressive!" Wei Xi nailed her awe perfectly.

"Oh? Really?" Ye Chong still was nonchalant.

"Oh? Oh?!" Shrieked Shang inside him, "Gosh, Ye, is this your way to reply a lassie?"

"Mr. Ye, could you tell me what your occupation is?" she asked out of curiosity.

He staggered out of sudden. Which occupation should I say…? Pilot? Modification technician? Mech mechanic? Chemist? Skeleton Artisan? I think I had quite a lot of titles in hand…

Somehow Wei Xi sensed the hesitation and inconvenience from Ye Chong's reaction, "Well, if you are not comfortable to mention it, it's okay, really!" She waved her hands, signing she was fine.

"Skeleton Artisan." After a moment of consideration, he picked Skeleton Artisan.

"Skeleton… Artisan? Such a strange occupation, Mr. Ye. I had never heard of it before. But it sounded amazing," Wei Xi expressed her adoration again.

Wow, she could know I'm great by my words? Ye Chong took an odd gaze at the female before him. Weird, very weird indeed!

Sensed the gaze from Ye Chong, Wei Xi quickly lowered her head. Soon her face was completely red, of scarlet that could drip sweats like her blood.

He did not understand the whole situation… but he did not have the interest to further investigate it. He withdrew his gaze and went back to looking at the front.

"Such a cute, adorable lassie! I like it!" And Ye Chong was wondering if Shang could break through the space-time continuum and jumped out from the alternate dimension without the keystone, judging by the amount of excitement in his words.

They held their conversation and walked on together.

They hit the end of the corridor and was faced by another sealed gate. Unlike the gate before, this gate required identity verification.

"Oh?" Wei Xi seemed to have noticed something while both Ye Chong and she stood by the gate, waiting for it to open, "A moment please!" As she realized that it was her mistake, she ran to the door and performed verification.

Beep. Identity Verified. Gate Opening.

"Please," she lowered her body as she gestured Ye Chong to make his entry.

After the gate there was a foyer inside. Under the hemispherical dome numerous sets of table-and-chair were placed. To Ye Chong's surprise, they were all made out of wood. A cabinet sat at one corner of the wall contained various beverages.

Contrary to the emptiness Ye Chong expected, there were quite a number of people in there. Two to three of them sat together on one set of furniture. They were either drinking silently or exchanging conversation softly. The foyer was so quiet that Ye Chong could imagine Shang's scream shattering the glasses.

No doubt Ye Chong's arrival had attracted the attention of people around. And simultaneously all of them looked surprised in their eyes. This should be because of my age… I think. He took a glance and as expected, the guests consisted of elderlies. No wonder he became the center of attention at the foyer. Ye Chong did notice there were a few bulky men in their thirties among the group of guests however. Judging by their physiques, they had to be the combat squad members.

Under the guidance of Wei Xi, Ye Chong reached one seat at the corner and sat down.

"Mr. Ye." Briefed Wei Xi softly, "You would be led to your room a moment later. The ship would take about 13 days to arrive at its destination. The guests around you are like you, they are the participants for the Level 5 Trial as well. Should you have any request, please inform me. If it was within my capabilities, I would fully assist you in fulfilling your kindest request. I must also inform you however, for your own safety and the best traveling experience, kindly treat the other candidates with courtesy and keep a distance from them, considering how some of them could be potentially shady characters. If you ever felt your life being threatened or your routine had been put under dispute, kindly contact me. Should you have any form of conflicts with the other candidates, please be informed that both you and your counterpart would be disqualified immediately and you might be severely punished under the terms of the Sanctuary."

Demurely her lips grooved as she mentioned all precaution as well as rules and regulations in one go.

Ye Chong responded with an approving nod, while analyzing the information he had gotten from Wei Xi. She said 13 days, that means the destination should be very distanced away… Well she might be bluffing to confuse the passengers, to mislead them so that they could not figure out the exact location of the venue. Apparently the crew did not intend to let us know our location. Too bad the ship was installed with jammers and Shang could not bypass them somehow.

"The f*ck did you say!"

"So what? Loser!"

Right at this moment, quarrels were heard nearby as two passengers were standing against each other.

Their argument became louder and they sounded extremely angered by each other. Not too long later, they lifted their fists, initiating to fight.

The other passengers evacuated themselves hurriedly as they did not want to be involved in this.

Wow.

Ye Chong was interested to watch an actual combat between the experts. He was astounded by the skills. Their techniques were of superior standards. Ye Chong could not imagine himself fighting against them. His skills were much inferior compared to these real deals.

So this is the standard of a Level 5 candidate? Ye Chong started to treat this trial seriously.

"Oh dear…" knotted Wei Xi's brows as she pulled out the communicator at her side and mumbled a few words.

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Chapter 150: Mentalist-Pilot! Perks Demonstrated!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Freeze!" A team of men barged into the room through the other sealed door at the side. "Nobody moves!" From the uniform Ye Chong could distinguish them as the official combat squad members. Battle tights for all 10 men bumping in. Ten? Ye Chong was astounded. He was oddly sensitive to the number as that was a figure for standard squad of the Sanctuary.

The two candidates engaged in their fight did not notice the 10 armed men at all. Both of them wielded similar strength and they were so hooked up with their brawl that it could cost a bloodshed at any mistake for the moment. They should be in their thirties or forties, the age of perks of their entire life. They were great fighters too. Their techniques were highly refined and gradually the fists got real. The mere quarrel over a disagreement had developed into a flesh-shredding assault.

Wow…

Ye Chong inhibited the overjoyed self inside him, as his widened eyes glued at the action before him. He simply would not want to miss any detail of this exchange of fists. His fighting skills remained as crude and very intuitive. Most of his victories solely depended on his overwhelming speed and strength. If he would be fighting the real deal like Instructor Hak and Feng Su, he would find his movements restricted and be under manipulation of the others. He would love to learn from these successors but… Instructor Hak's techniques were unique to the Black Covers. They were very bizarre and Ye Chong could not learn by just glimpsing at the records without an official teacher to teach him; while Feng Su's techniques had encompassed the application of the psychic power exclusive to the Mentalists. He did steal a few methodologies from Mr. Yin, however even the fundamental meditation was costing his life to put on. So in the end, in spite of the epic fights with them, he learned not much from the experience.

The two men in front of him were different nevertheless. The stances of defense and offense were clearly structured, the actions were concise and reasonably sequenced, which caught Ye Chong's eyes. He kept imagining how he would pull off those moves himself.

Wei Xi standing at the side with her hands folded sent a glance at Ye Chong's face.

Oh yeah! "Shang! Shang!" Ye Chong remembered something as he hurriedly called Shang, "Quick, record everything you saw through me. We would analyze it later. Sigh, how could I forget this?" His tone was filled with reproach.

"Yawn…" Shang's voice was laid-back, "Am I a no-brainer like you? I had already started rolling the tape centuries ago. Ye, how many times must I-"

Okay, that's all I need to hear.

Ye Chong had one less thing to worry about. He then shifted his attention back to the action at the foyer. The remaining lines from Shang were automatically disregarded.

The squad members came in and formed a circle to separate the innocents and the two fighting men. They kept the men at the circle and stayed still.

The men were still enjoying their fights apparently, as their actions became more brutal over the time. The scene seemed to have gotten grimmer than before. Ye Chong was so mesmerized by the sequence.

At that while when Ye Chong was bewitched by the sounds of fists crashing, the squad members finally took action.

Two of them at each side weaved towards the center of the hall.

Like lightning they rushed towards each other. It happened like a whirlwind as they turned into two beams of gray silhouettes. They crossed over each other and returned to fill in the gap they had left out.

It was so fast that most people would assume they were seeing things.

The fists stopped, the kicks ceased. The two men were as if frozen at the center, their actions were paused, like a sudden glitch in a theater.

It was dead silent at the foyer.

Creepy… It was creepy.

The pause lasted for 2 seconds then they fell onto the ground. They passed out, though Ye Chong could not tell if they were still alive.

The dramatic collapsed alarmed everyone in the hall, including Ye Chong.

But unlike the others in the foyer, Ye Chong saw everything through his eyes.

Right when both of the silhouettes overlapped each other, his eyes squeezed drastically as his pupils exerted a fine beam of glance of great focus! Wei Xi who had been watching the happening did not seem to notice Ye Chong's strange eyes.

Horrifying. The two members must be the mentalists. A simultaneous sequence performed without prompt communication, of such rapport and such accurate grasp of timing, no one else than the mentalists could have done it!

The crossing point of the silhouettes was none other than the very center between the brawls of those men, since that was the point where the intensity was condensed, they had at least exchanged punches and kicks 10 times a second.

The timing when both mentalists got to each other flawlessly happened to be the split second when the two men withdrew their fists and legs! Within the distance barely a meter, the two mentalists crossed each other with their backs rubbing against. Ye Chong could clearly see the closest part they got together was no more than a centimeter.

Technically at that crossing point, one mentalist launched his knees at the abdomen while the other made a slam at the neck with his palm. The entire sequence of action happened in milliseconds!

Ye Chong tried to calm himself, his expression changed back to normal and Wei Xi shifted her sight back onto Ye Chong.

The two mentalists walked out of the circle with two unconscious men in their arms. The team eventually removed themselves from the foyer. Without a single bit of unnecessary noises, the foyer got back its dining pleasure. "Mhm, all done, it's alright now! Mr. Ye," stated Wei Xi as she smiled at Ye Chong, "This foyer is mainly for social activities or a place for candidates to pass their times, but somehow people mistook fighting as a kind of social activity. Hehehe, Mr. Ye, would you like to stay here or would you like to move to your room at the moment?"

"To my room," replied Ye Chong.

Ye Chong's room was Room 508. It was not spacious but it contained a range of facilities. Ye Chong stepped into the room, "Ye, be careful. The room has eyes," reminded Shang.

"Got it. Mhm." Ye Chong did not feel surprised of such extra implementation in the room. It would be more of a surprise to him if the room did not have security cameras in the first place.

"Well, this is it. Mr. Ye, this would be your room for the rest of your trip. There is a processor containing the manuals of all facilities in the room. An instruction manual for example, you could take a look after this. If you have any doubts in mind, you could always ask me. The communicator in you room is directly connected to mine. We are glad to serve you at any time!" bowed Wei Xi to Ye Chong again as she detailed the services.

"Thank you," Ye Chong also returned a bow to her. Well, the beast knew some basic courtesy at least. Of course, Shang shared a major credit in this for being proactively instilling him the humanity.

The room was dim. On top of a wooden antique table the very symbol of technological advancement, the processor sat, which the contrast was a little awkward to behold. The processor was connected to a communicator at the side.

…

Behind the table, an elderly in pale green garb was seated. And he was watching the visual showing up on the communicator, where Wei Xi was being projected.

"Tell me about this new applicant. You were at his service, you should know something about him I assume?" The elderly's voice was deep and a little hoarse, his eyes were murky with occasional sparkles which would alert the people upon sighting. Anyone could have told that he was a mentalist from his clothing. His tone was calm yet a strong sense of authority of a higher-up could be felt.

"Yes sir, my pleasure," bowed Wei Xi in the hologram as she started pondering and recalling the moments she shared with Ye Chong, it took her a bit to piece everything together, "The applicant is very young… about 20 years old… as fit as a fiddle, though he was a little thin. He was even-tempered, cold to people, less of a talker and he was tenacious… From his reactions thus far, I could say he showed little interest towards lust and seduction. Mhm… he might have some backgrounds unknown to us. He did not seem like an active, impulsive youngster that I have known of. Very different."

"I see… I see… Looks like you have quite a remark for him." The elderly exerted bit of attention.

"Yes, certainly. I feel something utterly different of this person. I also doubted something…" Wei Xi paused a little while, "He could be an ace in combats or he should have an equivalent quality of offenses. He could even have a very rich experience in fights or wars…"

"I see!" The elderly was very interested, "I heard he's a Skeleton Artisan, then how did he become an ace in combats as you have mentioned? What did you spot that made up such speculation from you?"

"Well…" Wei Xi quickly replied, "Once he got off spaceship, the first thing he did was observing the area. It was a very careful observation too. The first glance he set upon me was as if I was his prey or something. Those glances were sharp, only after my introduction, the glance got gentler. I think he realized that I showed no hostility. Besides, the way he walked and the way he placed his hands, the behaviors, every single part of his gave me feelings of a fighter. I'm not sure if it was out of his habits or mere coincidence, during the conflict happened in the resting area today, he portrayed immense enthusiasm towards the brawling. He was intensely attentive the entire time. Combining all of the clues mentioned, I suspected he could be an ace in combats."

The absolute beauty was stately as her voice went strong, which was totally different from her demure sweetie self who spoke softly to Ye Chong before.

"Mhm. You did a splendid job I must say," nodded the elderly approvingly, "I did not foresee that young man being this unique. Yes, yes, yes, please keep an eye on him. Report to me if anything happens."

"Yes, sir," bowed Wei Xi.

The hologram disintegrated into fickle glimmers in the air, scattered and fading away like fireworks. The statue of the elderly sat on the chair motionlessly. The only living thing on the statue was the eyes of his which blinked occasionally.

…

Ye Chong spent the following days literally rooted in his room. He hardly left his room for activities outside, which forced Wei Xi to pay him several visits daily. She was ever-ready at his service, with the enchanting smile and considerate nature of hers, which was a barrel of triggers to boil Shang's fuel as he kept breathing heavily like he was on drugs or something.

In spite of her kindness, Ye Chong remained stoned in his room. Wei Xi found him eccentric as how a young man like him could stay in the room the whole day while showing zero interest towards the opposite gender. "This is too weird…" she muttered while standing before the monitor. These few days she had been watching Ye Chong over the monitor. She was aware of Ye Chong's routine. Ye Chong would spend everyday at the processor, viewing a variety of design plans she could not comprehend. He seemed to be meditating on something. "No way," she mumbled as she recalled how she had tried showing these plans to other members on the ship and people had been telling her those were plans of commonly seen mechs in the market. There was nothing particular with them. They were worthless.

Plans for commonly seen mech? Nothing particular? Worthless? Then why is he spending everyday viewing them?

Or he had found out that I was watching him the whole time? That's why he acted… ?The deduction flashed in her mind.

So she spent the next few days visiting more frequently than before… but nothing special had happened.

But was Ye Chong really dazing at the worthless design plans days and nights the whole time?

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Chapter 151: Nine Gates of Daylight

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Ye Chong blinked.

The two people fighting aggressively on the holographic screen, with very quick movements, were the two from that day! Ye Chong knitted his brows as he played the video repeatedly, trying to uncover every single detail of the fight, analyzing their attacks and defenses.

If it were up to Mu, he could do this faster and present a more complete and logical assessment. However, Ye Chong understood that the results from his own effort would be more valuable than Mu's.

Shang had hacked the room's surveillance system, and what Wei Xi saw through the surveillance video was only a short recording of Ye Chong's image by Shang. The mech had put some effort into this cover, for he must ensure that the video remained largely unchanged, except for some minor details. For example, Ye Chong's expression, the schematics on display and so on, were changed occasionally to make the effect more realistic.

Every time Wei Xi visited Ye Chong's room, she did not discover what Ye Chong was really doing due to Ye Chong's astoundingly sharp hearing. Wei Xi was not a combatant, and her footsteps could be heard from afar by Ye Chong. Every time Wei Xi came to Ye Chong's room, Ye Chong would have been prepared with the schematics on his desk, and a thoughtful expression on his face.

For a full 13 days, Ye Chong did not step out of the room, and Wei Xi found that the schematics Ye Chong had been studying was changed three times.

Ye Chong's battle skills were mainly of the basic superficial principles he learned at Black Cove, without any complete logical basis. The duo's battle recording was dissected by Ye Chong into a thousand details, as Ye Chong tried to find some pattern in it. It was undeniable that both of them were very skilled, and Ye Chong believed that, in terms of skills, they were roughly on the same level as the average mech pilots from Black Cove.

However, any patterns in their battle could not be identified easily. Ye Chong could only mimic their movements for now, since he found their battle moves more powerful, more difficult to predict, or would increase his overall strength!

As for their easy defeat against two mentalist pilots, Ye Chong was quite surprised. To him, they were both on about the same level as Black Cove mech pilots in terms of battling skills, but they were still easily brought down. In terms of combat, no matter between humans or mechs, Black Cove was definitely far better than the Sanctuary. For two Black Cove level combatants to be defeated in a few moves by two mentalist pilots, the outcome was odd for Ye Chong.

Ye Chong brought his confusion to Shang.

Shang replied immediately, "That's quite normal, perfectly understandable given the circumstances. Ye, think about it, those two mentalists were ambushing, and the two idiots were still engaged in a fight. Tsk tsk, Ye, if the person before you is about the same level as you, and fighting you to the death, do you think you'll have time to watch out for other enemies?"

Ye Chong shook his head.

"There you have it. Those two fellows were obviously roughly equal in strength. As they were deep in battle, someone attacked from behind their backs, and that's absolutely normal! Besides, if you think about it, what's the unique ability of mentalist pilots? Hmm, sigh, this, I'm actually not quite sure of this, but it should be some kind of clairvoyance ability, tsk tsk, Ye, that's an ability that best complements an ambush. You saw what happened that day, that golden opportunity taken, tsk tsk, splendid indeed!" Shang spoke enthusiastically, his emotions high, but he then sobered up and said, "If it's one on one though, hehe, it's hard to say who will win!"

"That makes sense!" Ye Chong carefully thought through Shang's words and felt relieved.

Shang noticed that Ye Chong seemed eager to chat with him, and swiftly began on the one topic he's most interested in, "Ye, what do you think of Xi Xi'er?"

"Xi Xi'er? Who's that?" Ye Chong did not recall knowing anyone called Xi Xi'er.

"Sigh, you're such a dumb*ss, it's the nickname of our most beloved Wei Xi!" Shang sounded intoxicated, and Ye Chong felt like he was getting goosebumps.

"Not good at all!" To completely reject Shang's obsession, Ye Chong replied with firm determination.

"Not good at all? Sigh, I've forgotten that you're a wild animal! Asking that question to you is like asking for directions from the blind. Our dear Ye's favorite is that white-robed violent woman! Hehe, that passionate kiss, oh, wait, I should call it a lick, has let our little Ye experience true emotions for the first time, hehe, but that kick was too cruel …" Shang was laughing more and more lasciviously.

Ye Chong knew that if he were to argue with Shang right then, it would only excite the bored Shang even more, so he opted rationally for ignorance.

However, Ye Chong's mind could not help but think back of that snow white training garb, although the imposing and inviolable face was gradually becoming out of focus. Only the white training garb remained clear as day in Ye Chong's mind.

"Sigh, what am I thinking all of this for? It's all that d*mn Shang's fault, I still prefer Mu! Hmm, counting back, it's about time for Mu to come out, Mu must now still be analyzing that recording underneath!"

Shang's words were thoroughly ignored by Ye Chong, as his thought began to wonder somehow, from the past to present, through battle after battle, meeting people after people. Images and figures from the past came to mind like a dream, and for a moment, he felt a little dazed.

Finally, on the sixth day of the flight, throughout which Shang continued blabbering on, Mu finally came out. Ye Chong could finally have some peaceful silence! Once Mu came out, he discussed the results of his analysis with Ye Chong. Ye Chong also presented his own analysis, and they both exchanged their opinions on the matter.

In the next seven days of the journey, Ye Chong benefited very much! Mu's analysis results were the main reason for that. Mu's database had a good volume of information on kinematics and combat, which made his logical analysis unquestionable. Unlike Mu's typical statistical analysis, Ye Chong's analysis may be incomplete or even inaccurate, but he still had some rather unique insights. If a master in combat were here, he would definitely approve of Ye Chong's intuition! However, Ye Chong did not understand that concept, as he could only vaguely sense that certain alternatives would be better than others. As for Mu, he was only focusing on the analysis results.

However, these were only theories. Theoretical understanding and application were two different things. Without proper training, the body could not remember the movements, and with large variation in the enemy's moves, it would not only reduce one's capabilities, but also present an opportunity for the enemy. It seemed that he had a new training course now! Fortunately, Ye Chong never complained of too many training courses.

It was only a pity that the time and location did not allow him to begin with this training.

Wei Xi looked at Ye Chong through the surveillance device. The man never left the room, and even had her send him his meals. No matter how she looked at it, he was a thoroughly obsessed scientist, and should not pose a threat. Nonetheless, why did she feel that something was wrong? Wei Xi frowned, her delicate profile tinged with vexation.

Nast finally docked, and this meant that the moment of truth was near! In truth, Ye Chong had thought of hijacking Nast in this period. With Guardian and Mu, Ye Chong believed that the probability of success was high. However, even if he hijacked Nast, he still could not leave the Orbits. Without the Orbits' star map, he could not even know where he was and hence, could not do a warp jump. Leaving the Orbits would be impossible.

On the thirteenth day, the starship finally reached its destination.

Under Wei Xi's guidance, Ye Chong left the ship.

Ye Chong took one step across the ledge of the cabin's door, and his eyes automatically swept across the view in front of him. Abruptly, as though struck by lightning, he stood frozen and his eyes glowed in stupefaction!

Heavens! What was this place?

Before him was a dream-like metropolis!

From afar, the city's silhouette seemed like a scale model right in front of Ye Chong, giving a feeling of surrealism. Skyscrapers rose in all kinds of shapes under the illumination of dazzling artificial lighting, reflecting off glaring halos. One could not help but gasp in amazement at the sight. The buildings were massive, some shaped like large honeycombs, others like towers; while they came in a variety of designs, the one thing they share in common was their soaring heights. Blue Ocean Academy's 800-storey main building would fit in perfectly. Unlike the natural refreshing style that Ye Chong saw in other places in the Orbits, the buildings here were all in modernistic and metallic fashion. The Five Galaxies' most popular and common high-tech vibe permeated every corner of this world.

Ye Chong could not see the sky, since above him was an endless stretch of light blue metallic ceiling, reaching all the way to the horizon. The ceiling was equipped with numerous artificial lights. This place did not look dim at all; the world was bright as day.

Countless mechs flew swiftly across the sky, like a dense swarm of bees returning to their nests, casting many vague shadows on the ground.

Ye Chong smelled an earthly scent. Could this be underground? Ye Chong's thoughts began to run wild, as he was shook like a storm was inside him. How much had the Sanctuary's technology really advanced?

Behind him was the docked Nast starship. Nast was a large ship, a truly massive structure. Here, however, it looked tiny. Ye Chong found that many of the docked starships here were about the same size as Nast, although some of them were even larger. Numerous engineering mechs were busying themselves around in an orderly fashion.

He was now probably at the city's docking station. Ye Chong even had a sinister thought - if he destroyed a starship here, would it have a domino effect?

"Welcome to Nine Gates of Daylight!" Wei Xi's sweet and mellow voice was tinged with pride.

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Chapter 152: Blue Sandstone

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

He knew from Wei Xi that the city did not have restrictions on activity time, so Ye Chong decided to make a grand tour of the almost miraculous underground city. After declining Wei Xi's company, Ye Chong headed for the streets alone. Usually, he would not be in the mood for a stroll in the city, but Nine Gates of Daylight had irrevocably made him curious. A massive underground metropolis like this, Ye Chong believed, would never have been possible in the Five Galaxies. Ye Chong himself had never imagined for there be such a city in this world. On the other hand, no matter the time, familiarizing himself with the environment was enough to significantly raise his chance of survival. This was according to Ye Chong's experience.

Witnessing the miraculous existence of Nine Gates of Daylight, Ye Chong began to have doubts on whether he could pass the so-called five Trials, for the Sanctuary's strength was truly unpredictable!

Every candidate had to wear a silver electronic wristband once they left their ship. Its matted internal surface made for a comfortable wear. Its smooth surface of gleaming silver was etched with patterns of intertwining vines, and between the leaves of these vines, Ye Chong found many holographic projection apertures. Wei Xi said that this was a travel pass for Nine Gates of Daylight. Without it, moving throughout the city would be difficult, and his personal safety would not be guaranteed. As for how it would "not be guaranteed", Wei Xi only smiled and moved on to another topic.

Ye Chong found that wristband could not be taken off once it was put on. Wei Xi's explanation was that it prevented any accidental loss of the item. Ye Chong, however, did not buy it at all. Wei Xi also warned Ye Chong to never attempt to remove the wristband, or it would be very dangerous. Similarly, she did not elaborate any further on how it could be "dangerous".

Of course, Ye Chong was not foolish enough to believe that this was only a simple travel pass. Just as he laid sight on the wristband, Mu's superior scanning system had already gone through the entire item. When Mu informed the scanning results to Ye Chong, Ye Chong could only force himself to maintain an acceptably normal expression as he was given the wristband.

It had a signal tracking feature, allowing the Sanctuary to know at all times the whereabouts of the wearer. There was also an unknown liquid inside, mixed with more than 300 extremely tiny alloy needles. Next to the liquid was an extremely potent high explosive material. Mu concluded that this material could explode and wipe out anything within a three meter radius. The probability of this was much higher than the material being a tasty beverage. Based on Mu's calculations, the explosion would cause the alloy needles submerged in the liquid to shoot outwards in all directions, being effective up to a thirty meter radius. The explosive decision was similarly controlled by the Sanctuary. It meant that, whoever wearing this item would place their lives in the hands of the Sanctuary.

Ye Chong received the seemingly elegant wristband as he listened to Mu analyzing all the various functions of the item, and grew anxious inside!

However, seeing Wei Xi and an entire standard combat squad of mech pilots eyeing him with hostility, Ye Chong could only brace himself and put on the terrifying item on his left wrist. If he did not cooperate, he would probably be surrounded and attacked. Besides, there were many of the Sanctuary's pilots around here. Since he left the starship, Ye Chong noticed keenly that there were more than ten of the Sanctuary's combat squads flying in the air! If he were attacked here, there would not be much of him left in the end!

Wei Xi was secretly pleased. No matter what troubles Ye Chong could bring, once he put on the travel wristband, he would never escape the Sanctuary's grasp. They would not have to fear for any of his tricks.

After Ye Chong put on the silver wristband, the squad of mech pilots behind Wei Xi left silently.

Ye Chong made the excuse of wanting to look around the place, and quickly left Wei Xi. Wei Xi was not afraid of Ye Chong being up to something, and agreed smilingly.

Ye Chong turned and immediately asked Mu urgently, "Mu, can you take care of this?" Ye Chong hated the feeling of having his fate being controlled by someone else.

Mu was silent for a moment before saying, "Ye, this design of theirs is quite delicate, I'll need some time!"

Ye Chong could not help but exhale in relief. He had an almost blind confidence towards Mu's abilities. If Mu did not say it was impossible, then Ye Chong believed that Mu would be able to do it. In truth, ever since their meeting on the trash planet, Mu had never let Ye Chong down. However, even the usually undaunted Mu had requested for more time. This showed how advanced Sanctuary's technology really was.

Ye Chong calmly began his solo exploration of the metropolis known as Nine Gates of Daylight.

It was only by entering Nine Gates of Daylight that one could truly appreciate its magnificence. Walking leisurely along the streets, Ye Chong found the city's prosperity surprising. He had thought that the place was like a man-made base, but along the streets Ye Chong discovered that it was complete with various facilities. This was undeniably a real city.

Unlike the rushed pace of the pedestrians Ye Chong had seen in other cities, the people here seemed to be leisurely walking and looked carefree. Ye Chong also noticed something curious - most of the pedestrians he saw were middle aged, and there were basically no one as young as he was. Nonetheless, the people on the streets had all looked at him oddly, and Ye Chong did not understand why, though he did not really mind them.

The skies were much livelier than on the ground. Numerous mechs cruised between the skyscrapers, dangerously close to each other, but the mech pilots all displayed extremely well piloting skills. The common sight of newbie pilots flying their mechs uncertainly across the skies was absent in Nine Gates of Daylight. Ye Chong was suspected that they could be having some sort of mech piloting competition.

In a small store on the roadside, through an organic sheet of glass, many mechs were put on display. Ye Chong could not help but stop in his tracks. The holographic advertisement at the door wrote, 'Blue Sandstone Mech Store - Mechs Made To Order, with Modification, Assembling and Reparation Services'.

Ye Chong stared. What a huge boast. This was the first time Ye Chong had seen an advertisement offering custom made mechs, and even had modification, assembling and reparation services. If this little store could build custom made mechs, it would mean that the store had the facilities to build an entire mech by itself. That seemed preposterous. If it was one of those huge mech production companies displaying this ad, Ye Chong might have believed it, but this was an inconspicuous looking little store. Ye Chong found it hard to believe that it had the facilities to build an entire mech.

Even Ye Chong himself could not build an entire mech. With his most recent success, Han Jia, even though he had made most of the parts by himself, the engine, scanning system and other important parts were not what he could manage. Besides, without Mu's help, building Han Jia would have been more difficult. However, who could possibly have a helper like Mu?

Unintentionally, Ye Chong found himself entering the little store named Blue Sandstone.

The shop looked inconspicuous on the outside, but it was very spacious inside, with many different mechs on display. Ye Chong examined those mechs in detail, and found to his surprise that they were not in the usual natural style common in the Orbits, but were very similar to the advanced level mechs found in the Five Galaxies. Ye Chong was very familiar with advanced level mechs of all models from the Five Galaxies, and could notice the difference in style.

Suddenly, a soft voice reached him. "Young man, these things are very different from your equipment, don't waste your time on them!" The tone was not very welcoming.

Ye Chong turned to see a middle aged man in a working uniform standing behind him, his body covered in patches of grease, and his expression a little unfriendly. "What did I do to him?" Ye Chong thought to himself. The middle aged man's words meant nothing to him. What did he mean by "your equipment"?

Not understanding his words, Ye Chong had no intention of probing further, but instead studied the modified version of the Eden-IV model before him. Whoever modified it had intended to improve the mech's automotives, and even put on some horizontal stabilizer fins and simplified the design on Eden's originally thickset limbs.

Ye Chong could not help but shake his head.

"This is just a small store, nothing much to see!" Seeing Ye Chong shake his head, the middle aged man made a hostile expression, obviously trying to kick him out.

Ye Chong looked up in surprise. While he had few experiences in buying things, this was the first time he met such a storekeeper.

"How much is this Eden?" Ye Chong pointed to the Eden-IV model before him. This Eden-IV model had good balance, but its automotive power was regrettably lacking. However, other parts of its design were all aimed for balance. Besides, the mech model had an important advantage, and that was its stability. It had stable performance no matter what the environment. Besides Han Jia, Ye Chong only had Guardian, which cannot ever show itself. He felt the need to have another mech, in case if Han Jia was damaged, he would still have another mech to travel. Moreover, Ye Chong already had an idea on how to modify this Eden model.

"You buying?" The middle aged man looked unconvinced.

"Yes!" Ye Chong nodded.

"You really buying?" The middle aged man's face was full of disbelief.

"Yes!" Ye Chong did not even make the effort of nodding this time.

"Alright, that model's 15 Nine Gate points." The middle aged man gave a look that asked him to pay up if he wanted to buy the mech.

"Nine Gate points?" What is this Nine Gate point? Was it the local currency? Ye Chong suddenly remembered something important - he did not have any local currency.

The middle aged man studied Ye Chong for a moment, and saw the silver wristband on Ye Chong's left wrist. He asked, "You a new candidate?"

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Chapter 153: Interim Protocol

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Yes!" Ye Chong nodded.

"Haha, you're a candidate! Ah, it's a total misunderstanding on my part!" The middle aged man fidgeted with his hands, feeling very awkward.

"What did you misunderstand about?" Ye Chong asked.

"Haha." The middle aged man grew more embarrassed. He was going to cover himself with a laugh, but seeing as Ye Chong continued staring unblinkingly at him, he explained awkwardly, "I … I thought you were from the Sanctuary!"

"From the Sanctuary?" Ye Chong found that odd.

"Yes. Almost all the ones as young as you around here are from the Sanctuary. In all these years, this is the first time I've seen a candidate as young as you!" The middle aged man showed great curiosity towards Ye Chong.

"Why are young people usually from the Sanctuary?" Ye Chong could not see the relationship between being young and being from the Sanctuary.

"All the detainees here are those who passed the Level Three Trial, but did not pass the Level Five Trial. Usually, candidates at this level are aged 35 and above, rarely are they in their twenties. The young people here are usually elites trained by the Sanctuary. That's why I misjudged you earlier!" The middle aged man saw Ye Chong's perplexity and explained patiently.

"Do you not like the Sanctuary's people?" Ye Chong asked directly. While he did not tell the whole story, he could clearly feel the middle aged man's hostility.

"Hmph, the Sanctuary's people? Who among the detainees here would like them?" The middle aged man's expression turned into anger.

This was obviously not a good conversation topic. Ye Chong moved on tactfully, "Then how's you know that I'm an applicant?"

"Hah, that's really easy, it's just that I didn't notice earlier, hehe, or I would've known. Your travel wristband, that's something only we detainees will have on. I've never seen the identification pass for the Sanctuary's people, but I know that they don't wear this thing." The middle aged man laughed, pleased with himself.

"If you don't even know what a Nine Gates point is, then you must be a first time applicant. Hehe, this d*mned place, to those who are not applicants of the Sanctuary's people, they wouldn't be able to get in!" The middle aged man continued on.

"Oh!" Ye Chong realized now.

After studying him for a few moments, the middle aged man said, "Young man, you look like a decent person, so don't walk around idly. You'll most likely end up in Ancient Terminus, so best if you go back and prepare for the Trials. If you manage to pass the Level Three Trial, you'll even get to stay here."

"Ancient Terminus? Where's that?" Ye Chong asked.

"Heavens! Your guide is too irresponsible, how could you not know that? Since when did the Sanctuary's people become so careless?" The middle aged man wore an expression of disbelief.

"I just arrived today, right off the ship." Ye Chong explained.

"No wonder, you're an eager fellow! Hehe, then let me tell you all about it. Of the five Trials, you must start from Level One, and if you can't even pass that, you'll be punished by the Sanctuary. Hmm, as for what that punishment is, I have no idea. If you have passed Level One, but didn't pass Level Three, you'll be sent off to Ancient Terminus. If you passed Level Three but not Level Five, you'll be detained in Nine Gates. Hehe, if you really passed Level Five, you'll be allowed to leave the Orbits, and they'll allocate a starship to send you off. Understand now, young man?" The middle aged man explained in detail to Ye Chong.

"I see." Ye Chong began to understand the situation, and asked further, "So what is this Nine Gates point?"

"Nine Gate points are points for your service in Nine Gates, and the local currency." The middle aged man said, "For example, that Eden-IV you're looking at is worth five Nine Gate points."

"Hmm." Ye Chong nodded in understanding, the truth not far from what he had guessed.

Just then, the travel wristband on Ye Chong's left wrist made a sharp buzzing sound. Noticing Ye Chong's confused expression, the middle aged man immediately spoke up to Ye Chong, "That's someone calling you! Sigh, how could you come out here without knowing even that? You're a real piece of work! See, that leaf is the connection button!" The middle aged man pointed towards an etched vine leaf beside the holographic projection aperture.

Ye Chong quickly pressed the leaf as instructed by the middle aged man. Beep, a soft sound was heard. An image of Wei Xi immediately appeared above the holographic projection aperture, with Wei Xi's attractive profile shrunken and suspended in the air above the holographic projection aperture as her mellow voice came through, "Mr Ye, please return, there are some changes to the Trials. Please return immediately to the Sanctuary's trial center." Wei Xi was cordial, but allowed no disobedience.

"Er, where's the Sanctuary's trial center?" Ye Chong asked.

Wei Xi recalled then that Ye Chong did not know where the trial center was, and panicked as she fumbled around, bowing a little as she searched using the photon processor before her, her confidence earlier gone without a trace. The middle aged man saw Wei Xi's clumsiness from the side, and sympathized with the misfortune of the delicate young lady to be assigned with such a candidate.

After some long moments, Wei Xi finally lifted her head and recovered her smile as she spoke, "Mm, about that, Mr Ye, here is the exact location of the Sanctuary's trial center!" Wei Xi sent a holographic map marked with the trial center's location.

"Okay!" Ye Chong nodded, and began to look through the holographic map.

The middle aged man could not stand it any longer, and pulled Ye Chong to the door. As the man closed in on Ye Chong, Ye Chong's misgivings for having anyone near him almost made him react reflexively to avoid the man. However, he remembered that Wei Xi was watching, and did not wish to show his true abilities. Besides, the middle aged man was probably not an enemy. With that, Ye Chong suppressed his reflexive reaction and allowed the middle aged man to pull him.

The man's reaction was also a surprise to Wei Xi, in her holographic presence.

As the middle aged man reached the door with Ye Chong, he pointed towards the huge building opposite the street and said to Ye Chong, "I'm truly speechless with the both of you. Look, that's the trial center! Do you really need a map for somewhere so near?"

Wei Xi blushed deeply in the holographic image, but Ye Chong only acknowledged flatly. The middle aged man had enough of Ye Chong, and waved him off, "Now get going!"

Ye Chong replied, "Okay," and left immediately, not realizing that the holographic image with Wei Xi's awkward expression was still present, and swinging along with Ye Chong's left hand.

To prevent another humiliating episode, Wei Xi decided to meet Ye Chong at the entrance of the building.

Ye Chong's room, according to Wei Xi, would be for his perusal during the trials.

Wei Xi spoke with a serious expression, "Mr Ye, due to a special case this time, the masters who were supposed to manage the trials had other tasks to see to, and so we've decided to fall back on the Fifth Interim Protocol."

"Okay." Ye Chong was seemingly unaffected, with an almost expressionless face. Seeing that Ye Chong did not react with surprise at the news, Wei Xi approved of his mental fortitude, even though his lifelessness also made her furious at the same time.

Wei Xi was an elite non-combatant of the Sanctuary, and quickly noticed her emotional instability. She quietly chastised herself and adopted a more serious expression.

"The Fifth Interim Protocol permits a free lifestyle. For every applicant, the Sanctuary will allocate a proportionate initial capital based on his or her contribution to the Sanctuary in the past. The fund is in Nine Gates points, the local currency, and will reflect your contributions to the Sanctuary. The goal of this Trial is for every applicant to accumulate 1000 points in three months. This means that the final Nine Gates points in your personal account must be 1000 points more than your initial capital.

"Please note that any fraudulent trading in your effort to gain more Nine Gates points is prohibited. Your every transaction is monitored by the Sanctuary. If anyone is found to be engaged in fraudulent trading to gain more Nine Gates points, your candidacy will be revoked, and you will be severely punished!

"Your final Trial result will depend on both the final number of Nine Gates points you earn and the value of the products you created in this duration.

"There are many ways to earn Nine Gates points. One of the most common is to sell products you made to the Sanctuary. The Sanctuary will award you with Nine Gates points based on the value of your products. Another way is to sell your products in the market in exchange for the corresponding value of Nine Gates points. These are the main ways for non-combatants to earn Nine Gates points.

"However, as a reminder, the quality and creativity of the products you create will make a huge difference on its value! Hence, if possible, focus your efforts on increasing the quality of your products.

"On the other hand, any special formulae and creative ideas or products of yours can be proposed to the Sanctuary, and the Sanctuary will award you with the appropriate number of Nine Gates points. For this option, the Sanctuary's awards are usually very high. If you have any new and unique theories, you can submit them to the Sanctuary. After review and acceptance by our Masters, the amount of Nine Gates points you earn may be high enough to allow you to pass this Trial immediately.

"The difficulty of this Trial is Level Three. If you can, with your own strength, earn 1000 Nine Gates points here in three months, meaning you are able to survive in Nine Gates city. The detainees in Nine Gates are all candidates who passed Level Three Trials. Low quality products have no place in this city. If you wish to accomplish your task, you will have to produce high quality products. This is why we grade this Trial as Level Three.

"If you pass this Trial, you can move on the next one. If you do not pass, we'll study your performance in these three months and send you to Ancient Terminus or give a certain level of punishment.

"Your room's photon processor is directly linked to the market. From there, you can choose your materials. If you can't find them there, you can inform the Sanctuary, and the Sanctuary will do their best to fulfill your request, but the costs will be very high.

"Alright. Since you had provided three interesting mechs to the Sanctuary before, the Sanctuary's award for your contribution translates to an initial capital of …

Wei Xi looked down at her files, but when she saw the figure, her bright sparkling eyes immediately turned to a disbelieving stare.

"400 points!" Wei Xi pronounced those few words with great difficulty.

400 points!

For such a huge amount of initial capital to be allocated for such a young man, it was nearly impossible! What sort of mysterious occupation was skeleton carving? How was this expressionless guy special? What sort of mechs did he provide that could amount to a total of 400 points?

Numerous questions came to Wei Xi's mind!

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Chapter 154: Trouble

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

How much was 400 Nine Gates points? Ye Chong was ignorant, but Wei Xi understood clearly. The value of 400 Nine Gates points was the highest initial capital she had ever encountered! More importantly, this was a sign of recognition from the Sanctuary. Three mechs amounting to 400 Nine Gates points meant that each mech was equivalent to about more than a hundred Nine Gates points. Wei Xi did not keep up well with the Nine Gates market situation, but even she knew that some master level products could only reach this value.

If it was an elderly person, Wei Xi would not be so surprised, but the Mr Ye before her was definitely below 20 years of age.

"His occupation must be very special!" thought Wei Xi.

She remembered Ye Chong telling her about him being a skeleton carver. "Hmm, it must be because of that strange occupation of his!" Wei Xi consoled herself. As a non-combatant, she also had her own expertise, but hers was in pharmacy.

What a huge disparity! Even though she was recognized as an elite by her teachers, she understood that her pharmaceutical products would never fetch a price higher than 10 Nine Gates points.

The reality staring in her face had delivered a heavy blow to her! She smiled wryly to herself. "So there are real geniuses out there!"

Ye Chong was not aware of Wei Xi's inner turmoil. Wei Xi gathered herself and taught Ye Chong how to use his travel bracelet, how to check his Nine Gates points and so on. Fortunately, Ye Chong had good memory and picked up the necessary skills quickly, which was a relief for Wei Xi.

After teaching the basics, Wei Xi then introduced some basic information about Nine Gates city before leaving Ye Chong.

Ye Chong finally got a better sense of Nine Gates.

In Nine Gates, there were only two types of residents - one were the people who passed the Level Three Trial but not the Level Five Trial, and the other was the Sanctuary's people. As the storekeeper of the Blue Sandstone had told him, most of the young people here were from the Sanctuary, and Ye Chong guessed that they were probably students or something similar.

Ye Chong was now browsing through market products through his photon processor, since his materials would have to come from there. Unlike the old style found in other places of the Orbits, Nine Gates had its own virtual net, and the market trading system formed part of this virtual world. Ye Chong asked whether Mu could hack the system, but when Mu told him that the probability of being discovered was over 50 percent, Ye Chong immediately dismissed the idea. Of course, he was already surprised by the Sanctuary's solid abilities.

He had thought that Nine Gates was only a city, and their products in the market should not be too varied, but the photon processor's market item lists and product introductions were extensive, and Ye Chong could not help but grew interested as he scrolled through the products.

Ye Chong could not find any skeletons in the market for the moment, but he was not in a hurry. He clicked into a random list of items.

These were mineral ores, many of which Ye Chong did not recognize. He knew next to nothing in ore mineralogy and metallurgy. Fortunately, he had advice from the huge database that was Mu.

"Dual energy ore!" Mu's flat voice suddenly turned up a notch and surprised Ye Chong. However, Ye Chong immediately realized that this was no average material.

Maltese browsed through the mineral ore section enthusiastically, to see if he could get his hands on anything interesting. As a Nine Gates Sanctuary's mech pilot student minoring in metallurgy, he had stumbled upon an improvement in an alloy material's formula. The Sanctuary had granted him substantial award points. Hence, he was trying to find something interesting in the market.

He scrolled through the items on the photon processor lazily. While the ores offered were not bad, and some were even rare, they were still what the Sanctuary could provide for him, and not worth his points. He shook his head in a sigh. Why wasn't there anything that was worth his attention?

These mineral ores were mostly dug up by some detainees of good quality. However, their education system was far inferior to the internal information of the Sanctuary. Nonetheless, their rich experience allowed them to classify the ores with great accuracy. There were many ores that they had not seen before, but experience and instinct would urge them to keep the ores and sell them at a higher price. Maltese was looking for ores like these. Of course, some of the vendors were only selling because they were in urgent need of the points.

No matter the circumstances, it was rare to find ores like these. Maltese had only succeeded in finding a treasure like this once, which turned out to be a fist-sized core mineral. His success in improving the alloy formula was mainly due to the core mineral. This was what encouraged Maltese in his "quest" for such hidden treasures. The process was one that tested his patience, but Maltese believed he did not lack that particular quality.

Suddenly, Maltese's eyes glowed brightly. An inconspicuous looking gray mineral ore came into his line of sight. Maltese's right hand trembled. Heavens! Was that not a dual energy ore? This was probably one of the top 100 rare minerals in the known universe! Maltese's brain nearly short circuited. Even with the Sanctuary's huge strength and influence, he had never seen a dual energy ore! After a deep breath, Maltese forced himself to calm down, but the effort was largely wasted.

He reached out with his trembling right hand and made to purchase, but that dual energy ore suddenly vanished from the item list!

Maltese froze, and his face abruptly twisted. He searched through the item list like a mad person, but the dual energy ore was gone without a trace!

For a whole half hour, Maltese searched for the vanished dual energy ore. He had browsed through all the mineral ores, but still could not find it! Maltese finally sagged into his seat, his heart filled with great regret. Why did he not act faster? If he had acted just a little faster, just a little, that dual energy ore would be his!

Just as Maltese was nearly going crazy from his depression, Ye Chong was counting his remaining points. That dual energy ore had cost him an unexpected 200 points! In the blink of an eye, his points had halved in amount.

The miner of the dual energy ore had found that the ore emitted strong energy waves, but did not recognize it. After consulting various experts among the detainees, none of them knew about the ore. He realized that the ore was a rare mineral, but had to sell it since he was in desperate need of points. He priced it at a high 200 points, thinking that if he could not sell it, he would then keep it for his own research. If he could sell it, then he would also earn a good sum.

200 points was equivalent to about 40 Eden mechs! Even though Ye Chong knew the ore was valuable, he was still pained by the large expense!

Mu hastened Ye Chong to quickly scroll through the item list as he explained, "Dual energy ores can be mixed into alloys, resulting in an alloy with enhanced resistance against energy based weapons like laser beams! They're a must for building excellent mech shields. However, they are very rare, and is one of the most valuable minerals in the universe."

Mu's explanation was a great relief to Ye Chong!

"Stop, Ye!" Mu spoke again.

Maltese may had minored in metallurgy, but he was an outstanding mech pilot, and had good control over his emotions, in which he quickly ended his emotional agitation. He consoled himself, gathered his emotions and restarted his long "quest" for hidden treasures. The item list was constantly refreshing, and new products could always surface at any moment.

Monocrystalline aluminite? Maltese brightened up. Could this be Heaven's way of compensating for his earlier missed opportunity with the dual energy ore? Monocrystalline aluminite may not be as precious as dual energy ore, but it was still a very rare mineral. However, Maltese had seen it before in the Sanctuary's mineral museum. It was a small, clear piece of crystal, much like jewellery.

This particular piece of monocrystalline aluminite looked blemished on the outside, with only a small corner uncovered in transparent crystalline form. Maltese grew excited. Being proficient in mineralogy, he knew that the outside surface was only an associated mineral. Once the mineral layer on the surface was removed, the inside would be clear as crystal. Based on the mass, this piece was at least ten times larger than the one on display in the school mineral museum!

This was an extremely rare piece of large monocrystalline aluminite!

Maltese's eyes shone brightly, overjoyed, and could not help but laugh out loud, "Surely no one will act before me …"

Before he could finish the sentence, the monocrystalline aluminite on the photon processor suddenly vanished! Maltese's laughter was cut short abruptly. His eyes bulged out and the veins around his temples throbbed. His expression froze, and he finally gave up, falling backwards in outrage, blood spraying out of his mouth!

Twice he was robbed, and twice he had lost such precious mineral ores. Even if Maltese had good mental endurance, he could no longer suppress the fiery rage in his heart. After vomiting that mouthful of blood, he fell down backwards like a rod.

At the same time, the oblivious Ye Chong was taking in information from Mu. "Monocrystalline aluminite is also a precious mineral, and can enhance an alloy's resilience, improving its physical properties. The most special part about it is that it could enhance an alloy's performance under high temperatures, and so it's a good material for mech engines!"

Ye Chong and Mu conversed as usual, oblivious to the person whom they had exasperated until he fainted! Even if Ye Chong knew, he would not feel guilty, but instead remind himself that he must always act fast! This person would be a living example for not following that rule!

Under Mu's guidance, Ye Chong bought a few more mineral ores. While they were not as precious as the earlier one, they were still rare minerals!

However, Ye Chong quickly realized a very serious problem. His and Mu's lavish spending had quickly exhausted all 400 points! Ye Chong even suspected that Mu had calculated his points and picked the minerals accordingly. He now had no points left, his account as barren as it had been when he first landed in Nine Gates!

Even if he could find any skeletons, he could no longer afford to buy them now!

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Chapter 155: First Pot of Gold?

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

In the pharmaceutical section of listed items for sale, Ye Chong finally found skeletons in the list. The long list offered skeletons in great variety, and Ye Chong brightened up at that. He was relieved to find that it was possible to find skeletons after all. For a skeleton carver, nothing would be more scary than not having any skeleton materials! Besides, the skeletons for sale were abundant in numbers and types, and that was a surprise to Ye Chong!

"Why are these skeletons in the pharmaceutical section?" Ye Chong could not understand. He could see no relation between skeletons and pharmacy.

"There is a branch in pharmacy that uses flora, fauna and mineral ores as ingredients to produce medicine or for treatment. Animal skeletons are a very important part of it. From the trade volume, this branch must be quite popular here! Of course, I will have to investigate further to understand the details, what I have just said was only a probable deduction!" Mu replied.

"There's a branch like this?" Ye Chong was surprised.

"Yes. It's inherited from the past, and grew systematic over time. However, it's still not a very well known branch, since these treatments are usually effective against strange conditions. My database has little information on this!" Mu said.

Most of the skeletons were from mutant life forms. They came in all shapes and colors, but the points for each of them was very different from Ye Chong's expectations. For some skeletons that looked average for Ye Chong, were priced ridiculously high. Some skeletons with good properties were, however, priced very low, and even as Ye Chong read on he regretted not having a single point to spend on them!

He realized then that this was the pharmaceutical section, and he should be about the only skeleton carver in the whole of Nine Gates. His valuation of the skeletons must be different from theirs. That was alright, since it could be advantageous for him. He could use fewer points to buy some excellent skeletons, thus reducing the cost.

With some understanding of the market, Ye Chong began to consider the ways he could earn enough points to buy skeletons.

How could he earn his first pot of gold? Ye Chong frowned in contemplation.

"My database has many special formulae for alloys, you can exchange them for Nine Gates points!" Mu suggested.

"No!" This suggestion was immediately rejected by Ye Chong! Ye Chong understood that these formulae were far more valuable than a full skeleton mech, and could potentially make the Sanctuary even stronger! Based on the current situation, the Sanctuary was now his enemy, and improving the strength of his enemy using his information for short term benefits was something Ye Chong would never allow.

Even if he wanted to exchange them for points, Ye Chong would rather get them from the detainees, and not the Sanctuary.

Ye Chong walked into Blue Sandstone for the second time. The middle aged man saw Ye Chong and was surprised, but quickly greeted him, "Young man, why are you not preparing for your trials? Still wandering around?" He was still mocking Ye Chong on the inside for being a candidate at such a young age.

"Yes, the trial's changed!" Ye Chong looked straight towards the Eden-IV model, and spoke without turning, "That Eden has a problem!"

"Problem?" Ye Chong's off tangent remark caught the middle aged storekeeper off guard, and found himself moving towards the Eden as he said, "What problem?" His expression was one of disbelief. While he was not entirely satisfied with that Eden, he was still skeptical of how this boy could point out a problem.

"Eden-IV's special feature is its stability, while its weakness is its lack of speed. You want to improve its automotive capabilities, so you added the horizontal stabilizer while also simplifying its main body. But that greatly reduces the stability of this mech! Besides, most importantly is, the mech's defenses will be sharply reduced!" Ye Chong spoke without expression.

"Eh!" Ye Chong spoke the truth, and the middle aged storekeeper was a little startled . "You make sense, I guess! But I can't do much about it, Eden can't use any other engine model, so I could only do what I did!"

That was true. Eden's engine was incompatible with other models. This also resulted in Eden being mostly abandoned by mech modification enthusiasts, and rarely would anyone choose the mech for modifications. That was why Ye Chong first noticed the Eden model displayed here.

"There is a solution, but it's quite complicated!" Ye Chong said. He had studied this problem before at Aurora, and even asked for advice from the elders there, and finally came up with a solution. Ye Chong was quite intelligent in this aspect.

"Haha, young man, don't go around boasting, it's not a good habit!" The middle aged storekeeper was unfazed. He did not imagine the serious looking young man before him to be careless with words, and this lowered his opinion of the young man. The middle aged storekeeper may only be the owner of a small store, but he was a candidate who passed a Level Three Trial. Once, he was famous throughout the Five Galaxies, and his cautious attitude was already deeply ingrained in him. That was why he disliked the young man's boasting.

"Oh, if you want to know, I'll sell it to you for 10 points!" Ye Chong finally revealed his true intention. In reality, Ye Chong believed that selling his solution for 10 points was an undersell. If he was not urgently in need for points, he would never have sold the solution. It was not that the solution was actually worth more, but anyone would appreciate more of the solution that they worked hard to come up with themselves, and Ye Chong was no exception.

The middle aged storekeeper frowned and said, "If you have an improved solution, I'll give you more than 10 points, I'll offer you 20! Young man, you're still a boy, don't learn to exaggerate!"

Ye Chong knew that his age was always keeping him from gaining another person's confidence. Ye Chong was already used to it, and knew just how to change their attitudes.

"If you add a wedge shaped box inside the mech, use Farmier's dual return circuitry for the photon circuit, reduce the thickness of the mech's inner frame by half …" Ye Chong began talking.

As Ye Chong's clear voice continued on, the middle aged storekeeper's expression transformed from outright dismissal to one of focus. His eyes shone brighter and brighter, reflecting rays of fervor!

When Ye Chong walked out of Blue Sandstone, the wristband already registered 20 points in his account. The middle aged storekeeper had even send him off respectfully to the door.

Ye Chong chose to sell this solution after much consideration. Eden series mechs may be advanced level mechs in the Five Galaxies, but it was just an average mech in the Orbits, and not comparable at all to the Sanctuary's various mechs. Even the market in the Orbits offered mechs more advanced than Eden. While his solution was elegant, it was only suited for a small range of problems. It was only applicable for Eden series mechs, and did not involve anything foundational. This was why Ye Chong chose to trade it for points.

Back in his room, all the mineral ores that Ye Chong bought earlier were sent to his room. Each item was sealed in metal boxes of different sizes. It was impossible to know what was inside each of them. There was a number on each of the boxes, used to verify the items.

He opened all the metallic boxes and took out the mineral ores. Everything was there, looking exactly as they were displayed as holographic images on the item trade list. Of course, these treasures were passed to Mu for processing, for Ye Chong had his own job to do.

After a long time, Ye Chong finally chose a Leave Muncher's shin bone and a Red Toad's exo-shell, all adding to just two points.

Of course, besides the skeletons, Ye Chong still needed to buy materials for the strengthening chemicals. They were unexpectedly more expensive than the skeletons, and Ye Chong used seven points on them.

Soon, all the skeletons and strengthening chemical ingredients that Ye Chong bought were delivered to his room.

Since Ye Chong did not have any processing machinery, he had to work manually. Fortunately, his foundation was solid, and the two parts that he was planning to make were quite simple.

When he was done making the two parts, it was already the second day! One was a round mech padding in murky green, while another was a mech's inner ring in white, overlaid with a vivid red natural pattern of lines, a beautiful thing. These two parts were simple to make, with a short processing time and a wide range of applications. Almost any mech could make use of them.

Ye Chong looked at his products, satisfied, and added them to the item trade list!

When Ye Chong opened up the item list in the mech parts section, the long list of items surprised Ye Chong greatly. The list was too long!

Mech modification technicians and mech assemblers were always popular occupations, and many in the Five Galaxies worked in these two fields. Whether it was mech modification or assembling, they had to deal with mech parts. Besides, there was the routine mech maintenance and reparation. These were the reasons for the large demand in mech parts in Nine Gates and high trading activity in mech parts.

Ye Chong grew doubtful. Could his two products manage a small ripple in this vast ocean of mech parts?

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Chapter 156: Blast

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The quality of the parts in the mechs is mainly determined by the material as well as the craftsmanship. And as these aspects of parts-production come into light, the metallic materials holds an absolute advantage compared to other materials existed, which hence, the majority of the mech parts being made out of metals today.

However, a subject had arisen among those maniacs over mech parts in the Nine Gates city recently…

"Skeleton? You mean those parts were made out of skeletons? How was their performance? Have you seen the actual product?"

"Tsk, as if I have the chance to witness with my own eyes. Dociley, you know, the parts always managed to vanish upon rolling out of the production before we even get there. People go crazy over them. I had also heard of how there were quite a number of people camping at the trading market as they eyed the registered list of selling items available, awaiting for their precious to appear like a daily miracle. Hehe, though I have yet to see it by my own eyes, I do have a pal of mine who was able to seize one of them at great fortune. And… he said, he took the trouble to test it out, you know what he got?"

"What?"

"Heh! Dociley, those parts… compared to the same parts by Master Wei… the overall pointer, 9%. They were 9% higher!"

"For real? Much higher than Master Wei's pieces? I'm not buying this. You do know what kind of an elite Master Wei is. His workmanship has to be the best!"

"Not buying this? Well, save your beliefs then, zip your purse along with your mouth. Hmph, when did I, Xu your Bro ever lied to his loyal allies?"

"Yikes. True, true, true! Calm down, my bro… but I must say this is really shocking to me! There was actually someone with a better workmanship than Master Wei. I mean, being skeptical and shocked at the same time is sort of expected, don't you think?"

"Mhm, you have a point. You are shocked, you don't say. I was also shocked the moment I heard my friend mentioning it. It was like the first time I heard of people complimenting the mech parts produced by someone other than Master Wei himself, considering how he had been conquering the market for years…"

"Right! Yikes, a man who could produce such part… he has to be a potent one. Amazing!"

"Mhm, I wonder who that potent one is, for he actually was able to pull off such a great innovation, making parts with bones… I'm not sure if I would not bow before him upon seeing him, as these parts were pure handcrafts too. Look at the level of expertise."

"Pure… handcrafts?! No way! There are still men who strived for purely handcrafted productions?"

"Yeah… I nearly fell from my chair hearing about it. There are still craftsmen willing to make a part of mech from scratch with only their hands. Sigh, see… we are making mech parts, he is making mech parts too, but this is the difference striking the ground! Rumor said that Master Wei was utterly silenced the moment the skeleton parts came to his site."

"Sigh… when would we even be close to that? Behind an expert crafter there are always the other better crafters as well… I can't deny that. And now the market is chaotic, as if a fire was set upon the world, especially when those pilots were crowding the trading market like bees in the honeycombs, all mesmerized and squeezing to see if their precious popped up on the interface."

"Precious they are. The figure does matter, even by a difference of 1% in quality could have been the saving grace of your life in the nick of time, let alone that mouth-watering 9% stat. Those pilots who have always been playing with fire would need the better gambling rate than anybody else. The parts were not costly either. The price of his usual parts was around 50 points, when Master Wei's parts were easily beyond 100 points. But I had heard about something unusual being crafted yesterday."

"Something unusual? The heck?"

"I'm not too sure but I heard it goes a horrific amount of 500 points. Heh, and it disappeared from the selling list the moment it was registered. People were unable to identify what the item was through the crowd, the figure of the price was very clear though. Tsk, tsk, tsk, 500 filthy points! And the person just buys it like buying a cog from the flea market. The buyer has to be some level of maniac."

"500 points? What are 500 points when you are at the edge of life? He bought a safety charm for himself. In no time the 500 points would come back to him as long as he still has the life to earn them. Everyone must be turning green-eyed over his successful purchase, I guess. An actual safety charm in the shop, I think people would buy it even if it goes by 1000 points without hesitation. So I heard of how the kiddos from the Sanctuary were starting to notice the existence of the parts too."

"Oh? They started noticing it already? But that is expected. Hehehe, the Sanctuary might be a great institute, but an elite of the elites like this should be a rare kind among them. I seriously wanted to know who the greater master this is. He had been staying low, that it annoys me."

"Could he be from the latest batch this year? I had never seen such piece before, until recently."

"Probably! But there is yet any information about this master craftsman. Those old folks at the Sanctuary should know something, only they could have known him so far. You see, those fellas crowding the auction there, aren't they too bewildered of the man's identity?"

"Mhm, such craftsmanship, it shouldn't be an issue for him to pass the Level 5 Trial I guess?"

"Haleyson knows! Hmph, whatever Level 5 Trial it is, how could we not know the fact that those newcomers from the outside do not recognize what a Level-5 was?"

"Sigh… true…"

…

Ye Chong relaxed before the processor in the room, his eyes fixed upon the hologram of items registered in the trading market. Ye Chong clicked a thumbnail on the side and the hologram of the item selected popped up along with descriptions on the interface.

The fact that the parts were selling hot cakes was totally unexpected for Ye Chong. Parts of such unique and high performance were highly sought by the pilots in the mech market. Not only the standard 50-point parts were gone within twinkling of eyes, the first-class parts which Ye Chong put on the list at a daylight robbery price of 500 points also were sold in one second after he submitted the trading barcodes to the server.

Getting points were no longer an issue to our hero since then, as he already had more than 3000 points in his hands, which was way beyond the 1400-point requirement to pass the trial. So, our hero began spending his remaining time on window-shopping in leisure.

Unfortunately, his luck seemed to have ended days back after the insane sales. He found nothing interesting at the ores section, neither did the skeletons at the bones section appealed him at the slightest. Instead, he laid his hands upon a number of mechs, like this really strange-looking mech for example, which its appearance literally shouted a mutated insect at Ye Chong. It had a brown segmented body, so swift movements were possible. There was a miniature engine at each segment and 4 passive artificial tentacles were added as extensions.

He had experimented its performance before and this mech was astounding when it traveled through the burrows or the gaps. It was so rapid, yet so peculiarly agile.

Other than this odd mech, Ye Chong had also purchased an engineering mech. Well these mechs were not occupying any of his space. As long as they would be an aid to any form of emergencies, it would be not a problem.

Nine Gates City generally sold the items through two channels - first being the trading virtual networking system Ye Chong spent his days and nights surfing, which happened to be the most convenient and completed way to do shopping; second being the stores by the street like the Blue Sandstone store for instance, where most of their stocks were also available in the networking system, their main income was from walk-in purchases however. They could be not as completed as the networking system, but they were certainly outstanding in a way. They were distinctive and there were a lot of things which would be considered inappropriate to appear online, an information of some top-notch mechs for example.

Since Ye Chong had long fulfilled the point requirement, fairly quickly after he was informed by the Sanctuary, that he had passed Level 3! What he had to do next was simply to wait, to anticipate the Level 4 Trial coming after 2 months or so. He was not aware of the fact that how amazing it was for a mere boy like him to pass the first 3 levels effortlessly, judging by how he did not notice the horrified eyes of Wei Xi, as if she was looking at a monster.

Ye Chong with ample time currently wanted to carry on his training courses, be it the chemist courses left by Lunatic Guan, the fitness training he had been doing the whole time or the meditation training. Speaking of meditation, he realized the fact that it was exclusive to the insiders of the Sanctuary, consequently he stopped his meditation entirely as he did not want to alert, alarm or annoy anyone beyond his proximity. Meditation was quite tricky and the elderlies at the Sanctuary were terrifyingly resourceful at this. Who knows what could happen to his head if he were to begin meditating somewhere.

The bright side was, it had been quite some time since the last wave of his syndrome attack and Ye Chong was relieved.

After he had received the notification of his success in Level 3, somehow he had been getting some eyes from the people around wherever he went. They seemed to be peeking whenever he was there, or was he overthinking?

Ye Chong's action grew more cautious.

On the other hand, Maltese was in such terrible luck lately, as he literally missed two lovely and godly ores right before his eyes, in one day! The agony was enough to make him cut his own throat a few times! Everything had gone wrong at Maltese ever since. Whatever he did ought to go wrong somehow. It felt like he could choke himself even when he was drinking.

"Maltese!" Two young men in their battle suits came to him.

Maltese lifted his head and replied spiritlessly, "Mhm."

The unusual behavior of Maltese soon caught their attention, "What's wrong? Maltese, you look bad…" One of the young men with a long hair spoke, "I thought you had just received commendation from the Sanctuary? Are you having a headache over the possible ways to spend that amount of points you had gotten? Keke, we could give fine advices on that you know?"

"Maltese, please, don't be so down." The other young man added, "If that old fiend saw this, you are so going to get slaughtered." Old Fiend was a nickname for a teacher among them. The teacher was stern and went rigid as a ruler. His eyes were on everything, including the dress code among his trainees.

"Sigh! I'm just a person with bad luck!" Maltese's tone was spiteful.

"Oh? But we didn't hear any misfortune from you these days, did we?" the long haired young man smiled.

"O-Oh!" Maltese who realized how the words almost slipped through his lips quickly changed the topic, "Well, don't worry about me, no big deal, I can settle it as fast as I knock things out. My problem aside, where are you guys going?" He nearly made a joke of himself. Imagine if these men were informed of his incident during his treasure-hunting online, the number of people in the market would be so going to get quadrupled, quintupled, squared, cubed and soon astronomical. It would be receipt-hunting for him by then. All the receipts of fluttering out from the crowds.

The trainees from the inside of Sanctuary were in a highly competitive environment. It might seemed to be all peaceful and silent on the outside, but in actuality everyday there had to be darkness brewing among the trainees. All of them kept secrets of a kind from each other, be it a certain type of technique or the latest information of something, though the Sanctuary authority was very delighted seeing this since they did prefer seeing their trainees being capable of protecting themselves the better way.

"So we heard that Monkslay managed to grab one skeleton parts from the market and we were going to check it out. Why don't you come along?" invited the long haired young man.

"Skeleton parts?" It was the controversial issue in the market he had been hearing. His face was dumbfounded.

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Chapter 157: Shang's Idea Sequel ~Brain Blast~

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Well yeah… Never expected that prick to be this lucky. The lady luck always smiles at dorks I guess." The long haired young man seemed dissatisfied.

"Alright, we shall go and have a look together," replied Maltese with little bit of interest. He had already heard about the skeleton parts from his teacher way back before, but as far as he remembered, the craftsman was known to be an elderly… Did that old man amble his way here? The Nine Gates City? The parts notorious for their limitation in stocks, it was an unaccustomed sight to see them among the insiders of the Sanctuary, where most of them had only heard of the names at most, they had hardly seen the actual object before. And Maltese was one of them.

"Hm?"

Maltese viewed the tainted green plate carefully with growing interests. "That day was a cloudy day, I, Monkslay got my steed to the market and snap! I took this fine plate! And…" Monkslay at the side was proudly presenting his experience throughout the mundane purchase process of this skeleton parts at a beheading price.

Hm, interesting! Maltese with a Metallurgy minor did have some insights regarding the potential of other kinds of materials. This skeleton plate for example, it had a very strange texture and the crafting was well done. Maltese sneaked it over a scanner from his pocket… What… To his horror, the hardness was identified to be much higher than the usual enhanced alloys in the market, while its durability was thrice of titanium.

This is made out of only bones? When did the bodies of these mutated lifeforms become this tough? Maltese's surprise erupted.

As he compared the pros and cons between metallic parts and skeleton parts, he became more intrigued. Fiddling the plates, his curiosity, his attention had gone over skeleton parts and the elderly who crafted these.

…

Hmph…

Ye Chong noticed that wherever he went, there had to be two or three people tailing him from far away. They were dubious in his eyes but under the aid of Mu's intelligence, the conversation they had as well as their identity had been distinguished. Those were the guardsmen sent by the Sanctuary to protect Ye Chong, but they also shouldered the duty to watch him.

Ye Chong who had nothing better to do decided to start loitering in Nine Gates City, trying to find that very pearl in the sea like the Blue Sandstone. There were strange people from all walks of life, weird things from all categories of mall. Like this reagent which rapidly promoted the melting process of metals, it intrigued Ye Chong greatly along with the other magical things. These things were not "magical" without a price however. They often came with a terrifying price tag. That number of digits on the tag of points required… even for someone who would be considered as half a millionaire like Ye Chong with the points in hand could not keep up with these insane purchases.

So Ye Chong had no other choice than to increase the production of skeleton parts daily to maintain his purchases for the moment. Mu at the same time also seemed to be rather astonished by the number of bizarre-looking people in Nine Gates City.

After the continuous purchases Ye Chong made on these weird items with weird names he could not even mention because they were so weird, he finally stopped. With Mu's assistance he managed to eavesdrop the entire conversation exchanged among the men behind him, it was entertaining he must say. Their conversation not only encompassed the secrets and rumors within the Sanctuary, but also the scorching spite towards Ye Chong's leisure yet tiresome wandering.

Thanks to the leisure yet tiresome wandering however, Ye Chong was allowed to lay his hands on a variety of peculiar items while learning the city better.

For instance, the source of bones in the market. Yes that would be valuable information to Ye Chong the skeleton artisan.

Apparently the bones in the market were supplied by the pilots in bulks, including those from the Sanctuary and those who got detained. The mutation process among the biological lifeforms had become significantly briefer over the time, as their physique strengthened and their survivability improved, making them harder to capture, harder to kill. The skeletons from these lifeforms were the main source of bones in the market. They were treated as the byproduct of the pilots' hunting however, since the main income of points did not come from selling these skeletons, rather it came from the wages rewarded by the Sanctuary for completing the tasks of hunting the lifeforms.

Unlike the mutated lifeforms, the outlandish primary creatures discovered on some of the primeval planets had been taken to the spotlight, as their bones were the latest darling to the chemists. Since these bones alone had already defined a new possible combination of chemical formulation. Skeletons of such kind were extremely costly in the market and similar to the skeleton parts. They often disappeared the moment they were registered online. These primeval planets were uncultivated and obviously dangerous as well. It was as if venturing into the abyssal unknown to the pilots who headed there cautiously for their missions. Still, if the pilots made it back home, pouches of sparkling points would be awaiting them. High amount of points would be credited to the account, which was something for people to envy along with the valuable loots from the run. Thus, in spite of the hassle and the risk, the participation was active as ever. The Sanctuary also was greatly motivated, considering how the expedition program could bring them potentials of discovering new species, new resources… or the best, new type of ores.

"Ye." Mu had something in mind, a way that allowed Ye Chong to obtain more bones of premium quality, though the idea was from Shang apparently. It was just that Mu acted as the channel to reiterate his plan word by word, "We shall minimize the cost to achieve maximum profit!" And that was when Ye Chong remembered the fact that Shang was also a true lunatic over economy…

Despite that, Shang's idea piqued his interests.

Days lapsed and right when everyone started getting used to camping before the trading market to hurriedly throw their points over the newly-from-the-oven skeleton parts by the mysterious crafter, a request popped up. And no doubt skeleton parts became the center of attention once again.

The crafter stated, "I would no longer offer my works for sales, instead, if any pilot could provide me bones that are hardly seen in the market, the pilot could get a skeleton part from me for free."

Concisely the message was written yet impulsive the message was to people in Nine Gates City. It had transformed into the hottest topic the moment it was submitted to the announcements.

All the pilots who had obtained the parts from official purchases before were glad in dark, as handling points was much easier than digging out a piece of skeleton that would be considered "rare" to a master craftsman; while those pilots who had yet acquired the parts were in anguish figuring out a way to get some juicy bones to trade.

On the first day after the message was announced, Ye Chong had only received 3 pieces of bones, even though one of them happened to be at the very high-end on both appearance and quality wise. Soon after, Ye Chong sent a set of skeleton parts to the person via the trading system without hesitation.

The effect of this demonstration was unexpectedly impactful to the public. Almost in less than an hour, the happening of this lucky man was already made known to everyone else in Nine Gates City. The fact that he was able to trade a piece of bone for a set of skeleton parts was driving everyone crazy.

Yawn…

The second morning, Ye Chong scratched his back as he entered the collection room. "Let's see what chicken bone I'll have to bear wi… today…" Ye Chong stumbled upon the metal cases piling a hill before him. He was literally dumbfounded, his mouth was half open, his eyes zoned out instantly. The expression froze for the next 10 seconds!

Gosh! Are these people mad? These are just parts, skeleton parts, do you need to be this desperate?

It took the whole day for Ye Chong to pick the few best bones from the piles. That was not the problem… "This is the problem." Ye Chong was wailing as he counted the number of top-end bones he selected… there were literally 30 few of them, which meant he had to create the same number of sets of skeleton parts in return…

I'm killing myself, I'm so killing myself? Ye Chong was having headache as he had only created about 60 few sets ever since he got there. And in one day half of them would be gone. What about the following days? Helplessly he succumbed to overclock himself, striving to produce more parts to fulfill the demands.

On the third night, Ye Chong rubbed his swollen eyes as he hurried his way to the collection room. Out from his workshop, through the corridor, he reminisced the endless night he spent rushing the production of the parts. Those moments he missed closing his eyes while maximizing his efforts, even though he only managed to produce only about 30 pieces of common skeleton parts in the end. And these parts were unfinished… since the production was quite time-consuming by nature.

Okay, now I will head to the collection room and see…

Where did my room go?

Ye Chong was astounded…

Where did the corridor go?

The collection room, the outside of collection room, the following corridor of the collection room were flooded by metal cases containing bones. And judging by the rumbling coming from the room inside, the delivery seemed to have yet ended… The automatic delivery machine was still weaving in and out of the room after laying down one metal cases after another. There were also a huge case flying to his way, which Ye Chong wondered if the corridor could even fit half of it.

This much of metal cases! This much of bones! How many pieces are there? No… How many parts do I have to make? Why do I feel like I'm the slave to the deal instead of the buyers… Ye Chong had dried his tears and seriously hoped that Mu would give him the signature fainting treatment right away. "Dammit Shang! You and your genius idea!"

The first thing to do of the topmost priority was to stop that cursing request announcement straightaway! The people at the market was wondering what could have happened to the mysterious crafter upon seeing the disappearance of the notice which lasted only for 3 days. Speculations brewed among them.

Nevertheless, Ye Chong did not have time for those speculations. "I have works to do!" He could imagine his to-do list bombarded by the number of skeleton parts he had to produce. Simply put, most probably he would have to spend the rest of his vacation before the Level 4 Trial on the production itself!

The development was absolutely uncalled for. On the first day, the first batch of bones arrived generally because of curiosity by the people. They wanted to test the validity of the message, since it was the first time such an unfair trade request was made in the market. Most of the pilots kept a reserved attitude towards it.

Till that moment when one man declared his success of obtaining the lovely parts, everyone seemed to have been stimulated as they began snapping up every remaining rare pieces of bones in the market, which caused the price to skyrocket over the night!

That happened on the second day, while on the third day, the Sanctuary kicked in. Of course, the flood was caused by them. No doubt, the Sanctuary was the biggest player in Nine Gates City. They held the most resources and also they had the highest demand of quality parts like the skeleton parts for their pilots. So they would hold onto every single opportunity in sight. Old Ge, the master to Ye Chong's skeleton artistry had always been depicting indifference towards the Sanctuary's request, thus the scarce amount in the group. It just felt like a piece of steak being fed to a group of sharks.

The Sanctuary spent the past two days collecting rare bone pieces and had lobbed everything they got on the third day, since these bones would do them no good other than wasting the slots in their inventories after each run, "Might as well we get them traded for some useful parts!" The pilots were motivated especially when they were very much exposed to the use of skeleton parts in their machinates and they were highly aware of the excellent performance of the pieces. The Sanctuary even evacuated the entire floor where Ye Chong stayed just to fit the pieces. They also forbade every other personnel than Ye Chong himself from entering the floor. You could say they lost their heads over it.

Well, nonetheless, one could imagine the burden Ye Chong had to shoulder.

Maltese also sent a set of skeleton to Ye Chong's place, which was a result of his blood and sweat, trying his very best to get from his instructor. He might be addressed as a pilot like the others, he was still a non-combat trainee in actuality, so he could never get loots like rare bones to exchange for these bewitching parts. But he was smart, he knew his instructor had skeleton of a very peculiar creature, so… "Please sir! Please. This is my biggest plight! Please!" He got to the instructor place and attempted every technique of negotiation, "How about this! If you give me this skeleton, I promise I'll be the best pilot ever!" Begging, promising, offering for trades… "Where are you going sir! Please! Listen… Come on stay for a second!" Stalking, chasing, pouncing… the instructor almost got driven up the wall. He put up his white flag to him when he handed him the set of skeleton with both hands.

…

"C…C…" In the room which was dimly lit by the flickering lamp, the pair of bloodshot eyes trembled as it blinked, Ye Chong was draining every ounce of his vitality to finish the orders he got enslaved to… "Curse you… Shang…," he mumbled countless times, expressing his overwhelming spite towards Shang. He could feel his brain blasting at any second…

"Curse you!"

Chapter 158: Passerby

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Mu, my hands! Look at my hands! You could see it swelling!" whined Ye Chong. His tone sounded like he was going to cry. Ye Chong worked for the next 35 days nonstop, just to cope with the engulfing amount of skeleton parts in demand. Since he did not have the appropriate apparatus to produce the parts, he was forced to craft them the most primitive way - by hands, which directly caused him to overwork his hands. Certainly this did not mean his hard work had gone to waste, after working days and nights continuously for 35 days, his skills had greatly improved. And right before his drowsy eyes, a vast number of high quality bones piled, it was like the discovery of treasure island, a never-before-felt satisfaction. Ye Chong even made a few pieces of skeleton parts himself for replacement, which Mu brought back to the alternate dimension along with the other funny stuffs he bought. This service was only possible with Mu Shang. If they were not there, it would not be possible to zip everything into alternate dimension. Only a high-end photon stimulated intelligence like Mu Shang could execute such task effortlessly in the alternate dimension. The iron lizard scales were also kept safely by Shang the whole time too.

"Yes, your hands are more likely to attract attention, appearance-wise," commented Mu seriously.

"All thanks to that damn Shang. Hmph, just wait for it! Shang, one day you are going to come out and then…" Ye Chong clenched his teeth while he worded his threatening remarks.

"Ye, I am sorry but I have to inform you that you are currently lacking an effective methodology to produce the desired outcome." Mu sounded as if it was for Ye Chong's own good.

And Ye Chong shut it.

…

In Nine Gates City, when the mysterious crafter ceased his request after three days, people started receiving sets of skeleton parts one by one. Those were the one who sent the bones in the first place. So the hottest topic had shifted from why the mysterious crafter stopped the request altogether to what Santa Craft had given one of the well-behaved pilots today.

Maltese's negotiation was not a wild goose chase after all, as he had also received one part too. It was a shoulder pad made out of bones of Crimsonpede. It was more exciting than ever to him. He loved it so much that he immediately switched to skeleton parts research to test it out.

It was a happy ending. Ye Chong managed to finish all parts 3 days prior the Level 4 Trial. What a relief.

Soon, people realized that no one else had received more skeleton parts since then. So they assumed the delivery process to everyone entitled for the parts had ended. Right on the second day after people acknowledged the end of bountiful festival, the price of the skeleton parts had its figure increased by a few digits behind. Nonetheless, no one was shaken by the tempting price enough to sell the parts in hand.

Technically in this event, both Ye Chong and the Sanctuary gained the most benefits.

Ye Chong had acquired a massive amount of rare bones, which consisted of species he had never seen before. The issue of insufficient material had been perfectly resolved. Undeniably, most of the bones were contributed by the Sanctuary.

As mentioned before, the Sanctuary also gained great benefits from the event. About 80% of the parts were in their hands while they had just contributed a mere portion of bones in their storage.

But who cares? This had nothing to do with Ye Chong. His major concern at the moment was the upcoming Level 4 Trial in 3 days. After all the remaining works had been completed, the next thing on the list for Ye Chong was to take a good rest for he had been barely getting one since the past few days to deliver these parts. He was utterly drained and urgently pleading for a break.

Two days later, Ye Chong had regained his vitality and returned to his active self once more.

And that was when Level 4 Trial was right after.

The guide was still Wei Xi, who expressed hint of respects towards Ye Chong upon seeing him. Being the guide, she was well-aware of the identity of the culprit to this fiasco of skeleton parts in the market. Her respect was not out of courtesy, rather it was out of recognition, likewise to every place else in the galaxy, the one who wielded most strength always got the respect from people, especially in Nine Gates City where people convinced others with fists mostly.

Ye Chong followed Wei Xi and passed the lobby.

A masked lady in purple walked towards them. And Wei Xi held her steps and bowed to the lady promptly. The masked lady nodded at her slightly in return, "Oh?" She stopped, upon coming across Ye Chong, "Who is this man, may I ask?" Her voice was sweet and somehow seductive.

"This is Mr. Ye who will be attending the Level 4 Trial currently," Wei Xi hastened her introduction.

"Oh? How lovely. I never expected a young man like Mr. Ye to be able to pass the first three levels so flawlessly. You are a genius indeed!" The masked lady seemed astounded as her eyes went wide.

"It's just normal," expressionlessly Ye Chong replied in his usual indifference.

"Right? Mr. Ye is so great! He was actually the first candidate who passed all 3 levels in a row!" added Wei Xi.

"Wow, such an ambitious man, yet so capable! Uh huh. Very well, I guess I should leave now, I wouldn't want to take up too much of the man's time. Good luck, all the best! I have something else to do, if you would excuse me…" The masked lady motioned Wei Xi and walked away, "Good bye."

"We are pleased to see you again, Ma'am," said Wei Xi.

The masked lady had her doubt intensified as she walked… something was tickling her mind for some reason… she could not help but to turn back and have a careful look at that Mr. Ye's back, she wondered… Who is this? Why does his back remind me of someone? I seemed to have seen this silhouette before somewhere… But I can't remember who it was. That face of his was ordinary I must say… I'm sure I had never ever seen this man before.

Hmm… Oh wait! I remember! I have something more important to do! I don't have time for these!

Realizing she was running out of time while being engaged in a mission, "Hah!" She baffled as she reminded herself the time should go to something else more constructive than this, "What's wrong with me?" and she discarded her confusing thoughts.

Ye Chong however was not at ease as the masked lady. His heart nearly ceased functioning the very moment his eyes crossed her.

That… Feng Su, yes, that is Feng Su! It has to be her!

"Ye, caution ahead, it's Feng Su!" Almost simultaneously Mu's warning rang in his head, "And Shang had once performed a thorough scan over her curves." Added Mu, "So we knew."

Ye Chong whose heartbeat was reverberating inside tried to calm his muscles and to act naturally. He would be skewed if Feng Su actually recognized him!

Feng Su's outfit was too outstanding, it was like her signature costume. She was in her purple garb and put her mask on forever. That outfit and that distinct voice of hers had left deep impression in Ye Chong back then. He had fought her before at the woods near Mr. Yin's residence so he was already informed of her strength despite her deceitfully feeble physique. The wounds she caused lingered as a twitching fright in Ye Chong. Luckily he was in his Black Cove's masks back then, so she did not truly discern every part of his face. "Or else…" shuddered Ye Chong. He refused to imagine what the lobby could have become.

Judging by Wei Xi's reaction towards Feng Su, it was justifiable that she held a high rank in the Sanctuary… Speculated Ye Chong as he reminisced the brief moment they spoke to each other. The lady was somehow attentive over himself… And that sufficed an alarming moment inside Ye Chong.

The footsteps echoing throughout the lobby had vanished, it seemed to be safe for now, "Who is that person just now, Wei Xi? The outfit was quite odd!" Pretended all uninterested, Ye Chong asked Wei Xi.

Wei Xi snickered, "That's our ma'am. Master Feng has always been like this. We are also very intrigued to know her face too! But I had heard that, no man ever knew how she looks other than the elder himself! Master Feng is such a great pilot, she is the ace of the Sanctuary! In spite of her achievement, she was humble and friendly, we adore her a lot!" Wei Xi's eyes lustered with fandom, which was nauseating to Ye Chong.

I see… That explained her power. Well, my defeat back then was justified. I wonder how she would perform when she pilots a mech… Ace pilot huh? Should be really great. What kind of a mech though… that's the question. Ye Chong was running a conference with himself.

Maybe she could be using a skeleton mech. And advanced dark Raven or something, yeah something like that…

And of all possibilities, he had never thought of the likelihood of him witnessing the actual mech himself once before…

"Well!" Wei Xi's eyes blinked expressively, "Master Feng seemed to be really impressed of you!" She stared passionately.

"Oh, really?" Ye Chong threw a random response.

The next moment, Wei Xi carried on guiding Ye Chong to the venue. After a few turns and ups and downs, they had arrived before a room. Wei Xi gestured Ye Chong to place the wristband on his left hand in front of the door to perform the verification. Beep! The door span open.

Ye Chong walked into the room. Wei Xi did not follow however. She waited by the entrance. Her stare was frozen. The door shut itself right after Ye Chong made his entry.

At the end of the room a panel of 7 to 8 elderlies sat. They looked very old and right at their opposite a row of men stood. They seemed nervous at the slightest and like Ye Chong, they should be the candidates sitting the Level 4 Trial too.

Ye Chong's entry caught everyone's attention out of sudden.

"What?" Exclamations bounced back and fro. Even the calmest eyes failed to hide the shock inside. And a look at a participants could explain everything. Ye Chong soon came to his understanding that other than he himself, the rest of the candidates consisted of men in their middle-ages. They had spent their lives striving to be the best to pass the trial and this fella in his twenties popped in the crew. Obviously, Ye Chong would be eye-catching.

Ye Chong's expression was calmer than ever, fearlessly he walked to one end of the queue.

"Ahem! Ahem!" The elderly in the middle could not stand the ridiculous exchange of stares between the candidates over Ye Chong anymore, as he coughed few times to retrieve their attention. Scruff.

And they shifted their attention back to the panel, with their eyes focused at the elderly in the middle out of the blue. He was in green robe and looked solemn with the few strokes of beard in fair white. His eyes were lustrous.

Green robe?! Ye Chong's heart skipped a beat. He knew that only the mentalists would put on a green robe. This elderly was actually a mentalist?! Ye Chong put up his guard. Even though the mentalists were not as powerful as their pilot counterparts, they still wielded masterly mentality. They were well-trained and well-built in their heads. They possessed countless unpredictable tricks to handle people. They were highly sensible and Ye Chong did practice meditation before. He was worried if he would be caught red-handed by this elderly… if that was the case, it would be bad!

The elderly scanned through the candidates. His eyes shone sharply like a sword, which the candidates shunned as they lowered their heads.

The moment when the elderly's sight hit Ye Chong, he could feel his body being seen in and out. Goosebumps were running over every inch of his skin.

Like what other candidates did, he lowered his head instantaneously. He felt agitated, his stress building up! Mr. Yin's head had such information before, regarding the application of this powerful stare. It required high mentality from the user however. Well, clearly the elderly was the expert among the mentalists. Although he had lowered his head, Ye Chong could still feel the stare lingering around him for a few seconds longer than the others.

"Hmm, very well. Firstly, congratulations on passing Level 3. But I must say, what awaits all of you would be a trial much harsher. Now, let me brief all of you some rules and regulations for Level 4 Trial." The elderly spoke sluggishly. His words felt like an indirect order, which caused everyone lifted their heads immediately.

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Chapter 159: Puzzle

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"As all of you possess an entirely different title from each other, it would be quite challenging to put you into groups according to a certain category. So we gave in to having masters from various expertise to assist us in the trial this time. The details of assessment would be determined by each master and please hand the list of raw materials needed to complete the assessment to your respective guide. Please be mindful however, that the rarity as well as the grade of the materials you used would also affect your final result. Heh! But you need not worry. You can stay as long as you wish in Nine Gates City even if you fail the trial. I believe everyone here has a great experience in Nine Gates City, different from the chaotic environment back in the Orbits. This is what we call a peaceful and harmonic heaven."

And the corners of Ye Chong's eyes discerned quite a number of people spitting their tongues, expressing faint disdain.

The elderly ignored the disrespectful gesture and continued, "Alright, we would do the grouping next. Go with the master in your field."

The one responsible for Ye Chong's assessment was known as Master Xiao. He had a round face and large pair of ears. The reddish pear-shaped nose was the center of attention. He squinted his eyes often, looked serene and approachable as he smiled.

"Haha." He took a glance over Ye Chong, "So you are that skeleton artisan. Sort of unexpected. Good, very good. Achieving this height at such a young age, your future shall be boundless and bright."

"Thank you," flatly Ye Chong went. There was not the slightest bit of excitement in his expression.

The squinted eyes of Master Xiao had a stream of awe, "And you are also humble and undisturbed, a rare kind too. Very, very, very good!" Master Xiao could not hold his consecutive "very" to convey his admiration.

"I wonder what would my assessment be?" Ye Chong was unshaken by his words as he asked, the assessment was more of his concern.

"Patience, young man, patience!" Chuckled the master, "It took me quite some time to figure out the issue too. But as I thought over the course, I finally had found a fine problem for you to solve."

"I see," Ye Chong responded briefly while he waited for Master Xiao to declare the puzzle.

"Yes, it is also my first time seeing the skeleton parts in my entire life. I did experiment on your works before, not bad… mhm, truly not bad I must say, the parts were exceptional in all aspects. However, there remained a few shortcomings in the usage of bones by nature, which are also difficult to overcome. They are affected by the temperature for example. Under high temperature, their performance would go down drastically… And so…" the master began his discussion.

Ye Chong nodded a few times in agreement. Master Xiao was right of his words. The bones were naturally incompetent in this aspect comparing to metals.

"Inside a mech, other than the processor, what possesses the second greatest importance would be the engine itself…" Master Xiao spoke on with a smile, "Of course we can't produce a complete skeleton processor, but for an engine, it would be a bit different… There should be some possibilities I believe. But I'm not confident to say whether it would work, that's why you are here. Haha! Don't look at me like that, it's normal for a greenhorn like me to be unsure of something, since I do not know much about bones, unlike you. Mhm, and this would be your assessment - use bones to produce an engine for mech. No limit on the models, as long as it's an engine, it could blast into space, you are good to go. Well certainly you could involve the use of other materials to form the parts, but you should remember something - the greater proportion the bones occupy in the entire engine system, the greater chance you would pass!"

Ye Chong shuddered. Making an engine with mostly bones? Did I miss something?

"Hah!" Seeing how Ye Chong returned a bewildered look, Master Xiao laughed, "What you just heard was right. I am requesting you to make an engine with bones. Alright, there you go, you got your assessment. You have a duration of 3 months to sort this out and build the engine yourself. As Master Fan had mentioned, if you need any material, you could inform your guide. Mhm and this is my travel code. If you have any questions or you have finished your work, feel free to contact me through this code. Hahahaha! I am looking forward to that boney engine! Young man, may you have a successful trial!"

Ye Chong inserted the code into his travel wristband, "Alright, you are good to go! Hahaha! I got to go too! I have lots of stuffs to do you know!" said Master Xiao.

After bidding farewell to Master Xiao, Ye Chong left the room and on his way out he came across the other candidates, who seemed really troubled. Apparently their assessments were downright challenging too.

Heading back to his room, Ye Chong was figuring of a way to build a functional engine with mainly bones.

Bones are from the skeleton of animals. They are prone to high heat, even for mutated lifeforms which are blessed with strength and toughness. When it comes to heat resistance, especially intense heat resistance, they are no match to metals, which was fundamentally why Ye Chong never thought of including bones in producing an engine. From what he knew, he saw no chance in this innovation. This is the characteristic of the bones, a limit given by nature. The so-called skeleton engine he had used before was the patched engine of Yu Di, where he tried to piece everything back together with bones after Yu Di was badly damaged. Among all the skeleton parts he had produced so far, the only applicable piece in engine at a better chance was the plate.

But then… now the puzzle had sat before him. And he did not seem to have many options there. There was no time to wonder if the puzzle was solvable from the beginning. Ye Chong should be wondering the hows and not the whys. He should be verifying and not deducing.

"Mu, do you think it's possible?" asked Ye Chong to Mu. It took him quite a while to collect his thoughts, figuring out the possibilities. The outcome was depressing however. Bones are not possible to be included in engines.

"Of course it is!" said Mu and Ye Chong's face brightened. "It's only the matter of the greatness of odds."

Duh!

Ye Chong's hope sank under the sea, "Thank you Captain Obvious."

"At a certain level it is, Ye. But this is the only answer to your inquiry. So, you're welcome! Honesty is the best policy! I should be praised," said Mu righteously.

Ye Chong sweated. Was this Mu? Or was it Shang? Wait it was Mu. Ye Chong somehow could smell a little Shang in the Mu.

Oh well it seemed like it's up to me alone. Ye Chong pondered. Running away from difficulties was not his style. Moreover Master Xiao had said that he was allowed to include other kinds of materials. This should be it, a way to balance things out.

But then, is it really true that it is impossible to build engines with bones?

Ye Chong spent the next few days figuring it out. Once he sat down it would be the whole day. He froze like a sculpture as he pondered.

Day 1…

Day 2…

Day 3…

Day 6…

Day 9…

Ye Chong rubbed his sore thighs, he stood up and stretched his back. It had been the tenth day since the assessment was given and Ye Chong still had not figured out a satisfactory solution of, although he had come up with a few ideas to balance things out, like he might be using a metal core while replacing the parts of the lesser impacts with bones. If there was no better way in the end, this would be it.

Stretched his limbs, he walked to the table and lifted the plastic cup to his lips.

The rippling water reflected the puzzled man knotting his brows in his fatigue.

Water.

…

Suddenly, an inspiration flew over his head like a shooting star in the darkest night. Water, water, water, water… liquid… Ye Chong caught on something… What kind of liquid? Yes! Yes! Reagents!

Yes! I could use reagent to modify the attributes of bones! The strengthening liquid I had used before, didn't it successfully change the entire attribute of the bones? If I could use a kind of reagent that could dramatically enhance the heat resistance of the bones, then that solved it!

Ye Chong was very excited as he gargled the remaining water in the cup.

A hint appeared after contemplating in misery for the past 10 days, how could Ye Chong not be worked up?

But his excitement extinguished quickly. He thought it through… I might have gotten the concept but to build it would be the toughest part… This was especially true when Ye Chong had nothing else in mind than this concept itself.

He did learn from the best, however he was just an entry student under Lunatic Guan. Those formula of strengthening liquid Lunatic Guan had taught were solely for strength and toughness enhancement. They did not have a positive impact on enhancing heat resistance of the material. For a newbie in alchemy like Ye Chong, it would be a myth for him to create a new kind of formulae that strengthened the heat resistance level of bones.

He recalled the classes he had with Lunatic Guan, the knowledge he had absorbed over the time… yet none of them was applicable.

Feeling powerless, he begged Mu for some inspiration, "Mu, do you have any good ideas?"

"Hmm. Ye, your idea is great. But I must admit that I do not possess much information regarding the alchemy. I have an alternative however."

"What alternative?" Ye Chong was edgy like a man who saw a silver lining in the sky after the darkest night. According to his past experience, most of the alternatives suggested by Mu would turn out to be a working miracle.

"Remember that Guan's automatic analysis mechanism? You could try that!" reminded Mu.

"Oh!" Ye Chong's eyes shone, "How could I forget such a trump card? Hey, Mu didn't you keep that mechanism right into your databank already?"

"Yes, you are correct. It is indeed in my databank. Nevertheless I have yet managed to discover the core behind the working of this particular mechanism. The core pattern to be precise, since I lacked the information on alchemy in my databank, I could not perform an effective analysis. I could not also produce an accurate judgement on its validity!" explained Mu.

"Wow, the mechanism is that great?" Ye Chong was dumbfounded. A mechanism that even Mu could not pinpoint? That meant Lunatic Guan's exclusive analysis mechanism was of a high level of expertise. Mu had failed to analyse the Guardian this far. Ye Chong did not expect there would be another machine added to the list.

Geez, talking about the number of geniuses in this world. Be it Gu Shaoze or that Lunatic Guan, they were not much older than himself, yet they managed to become the pioneer of their fields respectively, especially when they had built something brilliant and new upon their forebears. Sadly fate was cruel towards them. Gu Shaoze was dead and Lunatic Guan had vanished in search of her sister. Could the god be in envy of their brilliance?

Sometimes I just feel…

As times went, Ye Chong was fully indulged in his thinking.

"Ye!" Noticed how Ye Chong had been building a castle in the air, he screamed.

"Oh! Sorry…" Ye Chong who returned to the reality sneered at his own ignorance. For what was I thinking this much? I'm just a folk of nowhere. It is great enough if I could survive. Currently Ye Chong only wanted to resolve the brewing illness inside him, so he could find a place where no one would recognize him and live a tranquil life! Unfortunately, that goal was a little far-fetched at the moment.

"Want to try?" asked Mu.

Made up his mind, he exhaled in puff, "Alright!"

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Chapter 160: List

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Skeleton Artisan, a specialized branch of craftsman well known by the people, who uses bones of a variety to build all sorts of parts for mechs.

Yes mech parts… That did not include engine parts!

Building a skeleton engine was never something that came across in Ye Chong mind. This was simply because it required to alter the attributes of bones entirely, which could be said in simpler terms - it had gone beyond the artisan fields. To Ye Chong, a skeleton artisan would be one who maximize the strength of bones alone. And the current solution to his problem was already against his belief since it involved permanently altering the bones' characteristics. They were of two ends of the tangents, not even close in theories. He succumbed to the alteration however since he did not see the flow without modifying the bones.

He ordered a bunch of bones from Wei Xi. He did have his own set of quality bones in possession, like mountains of them, but Ye Chong was not foolish enough to use them over a silly assessment. Those were his blood and sweat! In addition, Ye Chong also specially requested an advanced alchemy analyzing machine from Wei Xi. The machine was much more avant-garde than Lunatic Guan's mechanism and it also had a more intellectualized control.

As there was a variety of bones in the field while also being very different in nature, Ye Chong was forced to test them out one by one.

Ye Chong picked a few bone-types with excellent physical attributes and placed them into the analyzing machine. He would then launch the mechanism through the processor.

The very first step was intensely time-consuming, since there were simply too many types of bones in the field. The number remained vast even after the first round of selection, which caused Wei Xi's massive delivery to his room. It was fully occupied with bones. There were some rare bones but Ye Chong did not care any longer. Who the heck cares about "using a rarer ingredient would affect your appraisal blah blah blah"? It would already be a miracle if I could build a full skeleton engine!

He finally finished the first stage after spending the whole month. Not only he had acquired the possible formula for all kinds of bones, he also had obtained something else. But he got to admit that the credits went to Shang, who got out of the passive role and was able to speak after zipping his mouth for so long. He suggested Ye Chong to take this chance to collect the data of bones in various aspects. Ye Chong approved the idea… well it made sense. We were going to analyze them anyway, we might as well do a full detailed analysis. These information could come in handy some point in the future. Of course, the information collecting was naturally Shang's duty since the enormous databank of Mu Shang had too many spaces to fill.

Ye Chong could not help but to mutter, this Shang actually could give constructive suggestion sometimes.

Certainly, the mutter was clearly heard by the person mentioned and a barrel of counterarguments and rage were fired.

So, not only Ye Chong got the possible formula for the bones, he also got the full detailed information regarding the bones' attributes from all aspects through the analyzing machine.

The power of Guan's automatic analyzing mechanism was once again demonstrated. Ye Chong had actually obtained about 300 sets of formula. When Shang passed him the list along with the figure he almost fell from his chair!

300 sets? There's more? Th-This is horrifying! Ye Chong only expected pessimistically about 30 sets as the outcome but the machine managed to formulate an digit extra to the the figure. The number was a little scary!

Wei Xi was absolutely troubled at the moment, since she had to invest a portion of time daily to run errands for Ye Chong, while Ye Chong's room had already transformed into some kind of graveyard. Wei Xi might have undergone stern trainings to get her position but standing among skeletons of different shapes and colors was pressuring her. She could not inhibit her fear sometimes. Regrettably due to her duty, she could not leave on her will. By then she only begged the assessment to end quicker and she could return to the Sanctuary, carry on with her studies and be away from these nonsense.

This young Mr. Ye was not an easy master to serve. That list he nonchalantly passed to her before was a nightmare fuel, a fainting spell to her mind. The length of the list almost could knock her out on spot. She ran to the storage and mentioned the bones listed. The storage keeper stated that most of the bones listed were missing in the storage and claimed that the Sanctuary had redirected batches of them on an emergency back then, which caused the list impossible to be fulfilled.

Wei Xi's eyes went wide like saucers. Of course she was well-aware of what the whole emergency redirection was about, "We sent everything to that Mr. Ye to get the parts!" She got to compromise… and she gave in to pleading Master Fan, the host for the Level 4 Trial this time. "Hmm…" Pondered Master Fan. He then performed a direct order to the 7 combat squads to head to the nearest base to transport the missing bones on the list as soon as possible, which gave the second shock to Wei Xi. "Did master just sent 7 combat squads just to transport bones for a mere man?"

This is too much! Wei Xi who witnessed Master Fan giving his orders via the communicator was in her aftershock.

And then Ye Chong asked an analyzer from her. The third shock came like a blow to her head. She was also an alchemist, of course learning the basic theories of reagent production was the bread and butter for her title. Nothing was foreign, except for the fact that Ye Chong demanded an analyzing machine specialized for alchemist. Was he actually an alchemist too?

Wei Xi was very bewildered. She grew skeptical and spent the remaining time watching Ye Chong. But during the entire month, all Ye Chong did was dumping the bones into the machine to generate data. What in the Nine Gates he's doing? Wei Xi, unaware of Ye Chong's assessment, was very confused by his action. The only thing she could do was to report all these to the elder and the elder ordered her to keep her eyes on him.

Ye Chong and Shang had already noticed the strange behavior by Wei Xi. So the automatic mechanism was used only when Wei Xi was not by his side. The program was also set to be permanently destroyed at anytime. They could not let the Sanctuary have it, if they ever have it, then it would be terrible!

300 sets of formula… with easily more than 10 raw materials and reagents required each… There were some that required more than 100 materials with most of the names being alien to Ye Chong.

And then Shang gave him a new item list, "Ye, this is the compiled list of everything you'll need to produce these formula."

It was a much shorter list compared to the list of bones but it was as dazzling, especially with the additional list of necessary apparatuses and flasks.

"There." Indifferently Ye Chong passed the list to Wei Xi and headed back to work, "Are these…" Wei Xi was petrified by the length the fourth time during her service, it took her half a minute to finish her line in agony, "Are these what you need? Mr. Ye."

Ye Chong gave a few nods. "Poor lassie… Ye, you gave her a heart attack," sympathized Shang in his mind.

Although getting this list done would be the worst task for a guide in the history of humanity, Wei Xi at least could confirm something - this young Mr. Ye was not only a skillful skeleton artisan, but also an expert in alchemy. She could not tell if Ye Chong's expertise in crafting skeletons being masterly, but regarding alchemy, judging by the list, she was 200% sure that he had to be an excellent alchemist.

Maybe, "excellent" was no longer befitting to his knowledge. The list had exposed too much of him… the number of raw materials for reagents involved was nearly uncountable while some of them being really uncommon in the field. There were also a few apparatuses only handled by the experts.

Wei Xi did not hand the list to Master Fan straight away, instead she passed it to the elder and shared her insights regarding the issue. The face of the elder grew grimmer as he checked the list out while listening to Wei Xi's observation. He turned on the communicator on the table and instructed something softly.

A middle-aged man walked into the room very quickly later. "Mr. Had!" Wei Xi was astonished as she boomed.

This man named Had was Wei Xi's teacher in alchemy. He was handsome and always well mannered. He was the foundation to the fandom of girls going crazed in the Sanctuary.

Heard the shriek, the man turned and smiled at her. He then turned back to the elder and bowed, "Yes, my elder, how may I assist you today?"

"Had, I want you to look at this list." The elder's hoarse voice rang in the room. He tapped the processor on the table afterwards.

Ye Chong's list was projected on the hologram floating before Had.

Had knotted his brows upon seeing the first few apparatuses listed. He seemed intrigued at first, till he saw the following items he lost his interest and in exchange, worries shrouded his expression.

"Did you see something? This is one list of request from a candidate of the Level 4 Trial this year. And we did not have any information of his background in alchemy. I think you should be able to discern something from the list. Most importantly, are you able to estimate his standards in the field? This is very essential for us. A skeleton artisan who knew alchemy like the back of his hands, how could we let go of a talent like this?" The elder's voice trailed off…

Had pondered for a while and he stated, "Judging by the list alone, the candidate could wield quite a high level of skills in alchemy. For example, there's this Ever-brightening Powder in the list, it is an extremely familiar material that even most of our alchemists in the Sanctuary would be foreign of. Ever-brightening Powder needs to be combined with Falts reagent. That was a hidden law that it would not be surprising for an experienced alchemist to never hear of it. I was also one of them till one day I spotted it on one note by a master alchemist by chance. And the note was right. I discovered Falts reagent very soon after. Other than this, the list also has included a certain number of materials from plants, ores and non-extracting reagents, which was undeniably heading backwards from the current trend in alchemy. Yes, I suspect, he could be a kind of chemist from the ancient faction."

"Oh?" The elder's eyes lustered, intrigued, "Chemist from an ancient faction? Very interesting. Anything unique about them?"

Wei Xi raised her ears, she would not want to miss any parts of this juicy and precious information of ancient lost myths.

Had hesitated for a moment… "Um… the ancient faction held a total different ideology than the modern chemist. They worshipped the nature and they were exceptionally low-profiled. They were in the dark, not known to people. Only an official family member could be the successor of such artistry. Since they had existed beyond the records, the depth of their research in the alchemy was much greater than the current chemists in the field. They had their own specialization and somehow they have a kind of rapport between the branches. Mhm, I'm sorry I do not know anything else about this faction. I only knew this much after reading between the lines in the master alchemist's note."

"If he is in fact an alchemist from the ancient faction, and we were able to bring him into our Sanctuary, how would you judge his value?" The elder stated briefly.

"Ah!" exclaimed Had. "That would be invaluable! Absolutely invaluable! We knew nothing about the ancient faction techniques! And they possessed a totally different theoretical framework than modern alchemy! They also only passed their expertise to their children. There were too many mysteries in their clan! If we could know all these! I believe the standards of our alchemists in the Sanctuary would be brought into an age of rapid development! And we could easily overtake those Black Covers and MPAs, we could even toss them at far end! This is absolutely, significantly bringing us benefits! My elder, you can't let this man go!" Had's face reddened out of agitation.

Wei Xi was stupefied upon seeing a docile person like Mr. Had was going wild over a mere man.

"Mhm, very well! He actually exposed his identity to us, that he could be an alchemist of the ancient faction! Then we should not have a reason to let him go. Those fools from our Sanctuary could barely make the simplest skeleton parts, even after analyzing the parts. Yes, yes, yes, if we kept him, this could be solved, since you know, skeleton parts are great parts." The aged eyes of the elder were glossing in eagerness.

"Yes, sir," excused Wei Xi herself, back to the outside of the room. She could not stay calm. She never foresaw all these. That young Mr. Ye being so highly regarded by the elder and Mr. Had. Wei Xi's heart ran cold however… upon recalling the fate of this genius in that dark room just now. And obviously he was not the one in command of his own fate.

Sigh, a mere pawn like her could barely do a thing. Plus, the elder made his decision for the Sanctuary's own good. Maybe his stay at the Sanctuary would be far more beneficial to him.

She comforted herself and tried mustering her last few bits of happy-go-lucky nature, even though that hint of grief kept haunting back.

The order she received from the elder was to fully assist Mr. Ye while reporting her observation from time to time.

She went to Master Fan and passed him the list.

The face when Master Fan got the list from Wei Xi was certainly priceless. That popping eyes of his and that never-before-seen epic wriggling of his face was amusing to Wei Xi.

Ye Chong soon received all the listed reagents and apparatuses.

If it was not the supreme advancement of these apparatuses, running through about 300 formula could kill Ye Chong simply at mixing stage alone. In spite of that, mixing all 300 formula still took 3 days. That was not annoying. Wei Xi, was however. Ye Chong was puzzled as Wei Xi no longer spent a portion of her time with him. She literally stayed with him 24/7 ever since.

The only saving grace though, was that Shang no longer expressed his flaring passion of terror towards Wei Xi. So his ears were spared. His inner peace was bestowed.

Wei Xi was watching every move of his and no doubt the cautious chemist had noticed everything. He sneered as he found her action rather ridiculous. Considering the complexity of the formula, even one with amazing memory like Ye Chong could not digest and remember everything at once facing the table minutes to minutes. That aside, he was performing metal transmutation to the bones - a very new concept in the field. There were tons of gimmicks inside the technique, without any proper instruction, people would not have the slightest idea on what he was doing, not even for one with alchemy background like Wei Xi.

So the possibility of learning by peeking was heading towards zero to infinity.

As he predicted, Wei Xi gave up her meaningless action not too long later, as these formula were utterly god-written. She tried her very best to memorize one simplest formulae once and passed it to Mr. Had, hoping to hear some insights from her favorite teacher. "What is this?" Mr. Had seemed to be at the bewilder camp as well. He did not understand the working on the list.

And there she was impressed again, by the fact that Mr. Ye, one with similar age as hers, was already running through formulation that her teacher did not understand.

Sadly, eventually, such a brilliance, his fate shall…

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