Chapter 102: The Great Escape

Mussolini Empire · Imperial Capital · Southern Border Star System Route

Hark Morrison was the captain of the luxury spaceship “Resolute.” According to imperial law, any captain who successfully completed one hundred safe voyages would be granted an honorary knighthood by the Empire, along with a generous bonus. Now, Captain Hark was on his beloved ship, embarking on his one-hundredth interstellar journey—a milestone voyage of great significance.

Looking out from the porthole of the Resolute, the hyperspace tunnel surrounding the ship like a silver mist remained as breathtakingly beautiful as ever.

“Where are we now?” Hark tapped his pipe against the back of the navigator seated before him.

This was already the third time Hark had asked the same question that day. Naturally, he didn’t want any mishaps to occur on this crucial hundredth journey.

The navigator, Cantona, was a young man with striking golden hair. Having worked aboard spaceships since the age of eighteen, he had already spent five years navigating the stars and fully understood Captain Hark’s concerns.

“No problem at all, Captain. Everything’s normal. We’ll definitely be having dinner in the Imperial Capital tomorrow night. I’ve already made plans with Lina,” Cantona grinned and gave Hark a thumbs-up.

“Hey! You little rascal! Moving fast, huh?” Hark chuckled, though his experienced face quickly lost its smile after just a few seconds.

“What’s that fleet?” Hark suddenly pointed at the monitor screen in front of Cantona, frowning slightly.

“Fleet?!” Cantona, startled, hurriedly looked down at the screen.

The star route from the Imperial Capital to the Southern Border was never a busy one. Having served as a navigator on this route for five years, Cantona was almost always alone on his journeys. Yet this time, he really did spot three tiny dots at the very bottom of the screen.

However, once he saw the color of those dots, Cantona relaxed again. They were blue.

Every navigator aboard an imperial ship knew that when the ship detected an approaching vessel, it automatically emitted a psionic wave to identify the other ship. In response, the other vessel would send back a psionic wave containing its identity information. Finally, the ship would automatically compare the received data with its database, marking vessels of different identities with different colors.

For example, regular imperial passenger ships appeared green on the monitor. Private ships belonging to certain noble imperial families were marked silver. As for those ships whose identities couldn’t be matched in the database—potential pirate vessels—they were marked red. Blue, on the other hand, indicated “Imperial Warships.”

The three blue dots on the Resolute’s monitor moved extremely fast, roughly three times the speed of the Resolute. In no time, the three blue dots, which had previously been at the edge of the Resolute’s detection range, had already moved to the center of the screen.

At this point, the Resolute’s short-range sensors had already clearly captured images of the three ships. They were three of the Empire’s latest high-speed cruisers. All three were painted a nearly invisible black in space, with only a blue emblem painted on their undersides.

“What’s going on with these guys? They’re moving way too fast for regular patrol ships,” Hark frowned further. For some reason, upon seeing these imperial warships—symbols of safety and strength—Hark felt an inexplicable sense of unease. He felt it was his twenty years of interstellar navigation experience warning him.

“Nothing to worry about. I heard the Emperor’s birthday is coming up. Maybe the governor of some administrative planet sent them to deliver a birthday gift to the Emperor,” Cantona joked casually.

However, before Cantona could finish speaking, the middle ship among the three fast-moving imperial warships suddenly flickered and exited the hyperspace tunnel! Immediately after, the other two warships also quickly left the hyperspace tunnel.

“What?!” Cantona, with his golden hair, exclaimed in surprise.

The three imperial warships exited the hyperspace tunnel precisely at the border between the Southern and Northern Borders of the Empire. Within several light-years of that area, there was absolutely nothing—this could be called the most desolate region along the entire route. Why would three imperial warships stop here? Cantona couldn’t quite figure it out.

“Could it be that someone discovered a warp point nearby?” Cantona looked at Captain Hark with hopeful eyes.

A warp point, as the name suggests, was a spatial passage that allowed ships to travel through the universe via jumps. On Earth, people usually referred to it as a “wormhole.”

Although the Empire’s hyperspace navigation technology had already developed quite thoroughly, navigating through hyperspace windows still consumed a large amount of psionic energy. Traveling via warp points, however, could effectively shorten travel time and reduce energy consumption. Just like the slogan of “saving” on Earth, the Mussolini Empire naturally hoped its citizens would adopt more energy-efficient travel methods. Therefore, the Empire had a series of measures in place to reward those who discovered warp points.

For instance, one such reward was the five-year ownership of the warp point. Within those five years, all captains using the warp point had to pay a hefty usage fee to the discoverer. Even on a relatively less busy route like the Imperial Capital-Southern Border, discovering a warp point would be enough to make Captain Hark and the entire crew of the Resolute rich beyond their wildest dreams!

To say that Captain Hark was completely unmoved by the temptation of discovering a warp point would be a lie. Recently, the price of psionic energy had risen sharply. Just half a month ago, when Captain Hark flew from the Imperial Capital to the Southern Border, the price of psionic energy was still 450 Imperial Marks per unit. But by the end of the month, when Hark was planning to return to the Imperial Capital, the price had already risen to 500 Marks per unit.

For a civilian ship like the Resolute, a one-way trip from the Southern Border to the Imperial Capital consumed 2,400 units of psionic energy—that was a staggering 1.2 million Imperial Marks. If a warp point could be found at the location where those three imperial warships had stopped, the psionic energy consumption would be reduced by at least half. Then, all the captains who regularly flew the Imperial Capital-Southern Border route would be scrambling to come and hand over their money, wouldn’t they?

However, Captain Hark’s twenty years of navigation experience made him feel that this seemingly too-good-to-be-true opportunity was a bit too suspicious.

“…No, let’s not get involved,” Captain Hark hesitated for a long time before finally taking a deep breath and patting Cantona on the shoulder. “Safety first. Besides, you saw the performance of those three ships. Our Resolute has already been in service for nearly twenty years. How could we possibly match their speed? Even if we stopped, we wouldn’t be able to compete with imperial warships. Just think positively.”

“Ah! Fine. You’re the captain, so you decide,” Cantona sighed deeply and then clicked his tongue in disappointment, muttering softly, “That could have been a warp point! If only we had the luck to find it before those three ships, we could have struck it rich! Five years, at the very least, we could have earned ten billion Marks. Just imagine…”

“Hmph! You little brat! Instead of wasting time thinking about useless things, you should be thinking about what gift to buy for Lina when we get back to the Imperial Capital!” Captain Hark’s pipe tapped Cantona’s head again.

Thus, amidst laughter and teasing, the golden-haired Cantona quickly put the three imperial warships out of his mind. It wasn’t until the Resolute reached the Imperial Capital and Cantona saw the news in the newspaper that he realized, with a cold sweat, just how wise Captain Hark’s decision had been.

At the very moment Captain Hark decided to have the Resolute continue its journey to the Imperial Capital without stopping, screams of terror echoed inside the first imperial warship that had exited the hyperspace tunnel.

The screams lasted only a few seconds before falling silent again. The 170 crew members aboard the imperial high-speed cruiser “Velocity” hadn’t even managed to send out a distress signal before becoming 170 corpses.

Shortly after, the door to the Velocity’s control room opened, and a man dressed in imperial officer’s uniform walked in from outside.

This man had a face that was absolutely unforgettable. On both sides of his cheeks, there were scars running from the corners of his eyes down to his jawline. Together, the two scars made it seem as though his face was a fake mask torn from somewhere else and then pasted onto his face!

The masked man frowned, quickly stepping to the captain’s seat in the center of the control room, and with one hand, he threw aside the captain’s corpse, which was bleeding from seven orifices. Then, he pressed several buttons on the control panel hidden behind the captain’s chair.

Psssh…

A hissing sound immediately filled the control room. Then, the captain’s chair slowly began to rise. As it came into contact with the bright lights of the control room, the Black Viscount, who had been imprisoned beneath the chair, instinctively squinted his eyes.

“Hah!” The masked man’s facial muscles twitched slightly as he recognized the Black Viscount.

“Oh! Finally, you came. I almost thought I’d be stuck here forever,” the Black Viscount quickly adjusted to the brightness. As he took a deep breath, he smiled at the masked man and complained.

“Heh! On the route from the Southern Border to the Imperial Capital, this was the most suitable place to make our move. You wouldn’t want to escape from your prison just to be surrounded by hundreds of imperial warships, right?” The masked man chuckled sinisterly, his voice like iron sand grinding together.

“That’s true. The Emperor’s hospitality is truly something I’d rather not experience!” The Black Viscount laughed as well.

“Oh! The other two of the master’s vicious dogs have returned. What do you plan to do?” The masked man pointed at the two blue dots that had suddenly appeared on the psionic control screen.

“Hehe! Don’t worry. Although the master’s vicious dogs are indeed formidable, if they want to drag me back as a guest, they’ll have to ask my Wolf King whether he’s willing to agree,” the Black Viscount said casually with a smile.

Just as the Black Viscount finished speaking, a massive red dot suddenly appeared in the center of the imperial warship’s monitor. Immediately after, a gigantic red warship with a menacing shape suddenly filled the entire porthole! At the top of the red warship, the conical turret almost instantly lit up with a dazzling glow as soon as the ship appeared.

“Federal-made Red Noah-class Battleship!” Panic-stricken shouts echoed from the two imperial warships rushing toward the Black Viscount.

Less than half a second later, a massive psionic beam, hundreds of meters in diameter, erupted from the top of the red warship. The defenses of the two imperial warships were completely ineffective. The psionic beam pierced straight through the center of both imperial warships as effortlessly as skewering candied haws. One second later, the two imperial warships exploded like blooming fireworks.

“Life is truly fragile!” The Black Viscount sighed softly, then smiled slightly. “Let’s go. We still have a lot to do.”

※※※

When the Black Viscount was still imprisoned in the dark cell beneath the captain’s seat of the imperial warship, far away on the planet Fira, Kaelena and her companions finally received news of Zhang Wen. As a result, everyone immediately ended their journey and hurriedly returned to the Themis Academy.

The delegation from Almace Academy originally had no intention of traveling for leisure. The defeated psionic instructors were worried about their futures, while Amylise and her group remained constantly concerned about Zhang Wen’s safety.

However, when they returned, Zhang Wen and Xiao Xi had already endured half a day of tedious medical examinations and received their recovery certificates from the annoying doctors.

After spending a dull night at the Themis Academy guesthouse, the Almace Academy delegation finally boarded the spaceship bound for Casares.

Compared to the journey to Fira, the return trip of the Almace delegation to Casares was much more somber. Not only did the defeated psionic students and teachers remain silent in their respective rooms, but even the victorious martial arts faction was unusually quiet.

Having tasted success, Zack and Cloud immediately began a new round of training as soon as they boarded the ship, eagerly taking their seats at the psionic combat simulator. Amylise and Xiao Xi often stayed together. Unfortunately, without the strong support of Garret, Amylise and Xiao Xi quickly became perennial losers on the psionic combat simulator. After losing several matches in a row, Xiao Xi lost interest and exited the psionic network, returning to her room.

After seeing Xiao Xi off, Amylise lay on the bed with wide eyes for a few seconds. Then, in a huff, she jumped off the bed and rushed all the way to Zhang Wen’s room.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Amylise pounded heavily on Zhang Wen’s door.

As soon as Zhang Wen heard the loud knocking, he knew the person outside his door could only be Amylise or Xiao Xi. Besides these two troublesome young ladies, no one else on this spaceship would ignore the doorbell and bang on his door so loudly.

“Coming. I suppose, Missy, who’s upset you this time?” Zhang Wen opened the door with a helpless smile and caught Amylise’s hand before it could hit his chest again.

“No one upset me!” Amelia pulled her hand back and stormed into the room, plopping herself down on Zhang Wen’s psionic combat simulator with a huff, crossing her legs.

“That’s not being upset?” Zhang Wen chuckled in disbelief.

“Of course not! I just don’t understand—Carrie won her match, right? So why should she have to hide in her room reflecting on her actions like a bunch of defeated dogs?” Amelia exclaimed passionately, her chest rising as she fired off her words.

“Oh! You and Xiao Xi got beaten up on the psionic combat simulator just now?” As soon as Zhang Wen heard Carrie’s name, he immediately understood the source of Amelia’s anger.

“Who got beaten up?” Amelia’s pretty face flushed red as her secret was exposed, but she stubbornly retorted, “I’m just standing up for Carrie!”

“Standing up for Carrie? Then why don’t you go complain to the psionic combat instructor instead of coming here?” Zhang Wen pierced through Amelia’s little white lie with one sentence.

“I…” Amelia was momentarily at a loss for words.

Honestly speaking, Amelia herself didn’t quite understand why she had come to Zhang Wen. At that moment, she had just felt angry, so the first thing she thought of was to come and complain to Zhang Wen.

“Heh! Regardless of the reason, you came just in time. I still have a score to settle with you!” Zhang Wen smirked, slowly walking toward Amelia.

“What… what score?” Amelia immediately felt flustered at Zhang Wen’s smile.

The pretty girl hurriedly averted her gaze from Zhang Wen, her long, slender legs tightening together even more forcefully.

“I mean, when Xiao Xi and I were lying in the hospital, you went off on a tour with the psionic combat department. Sounds pretty carefree!” Zhang Wen leaned down, forcing Amelia to face his gaze.

“Well… weren’t Zack and Cloud there too?” Amelia tried to resist one last time, her heartbeat quickening to a point that even frightened her slightly.

“That’s right, they were there. But you’re the only idiot who, after clearly doing something wrong, still insisted on coming to me voluntarily!” Zhang Wen laughed, reaching out to gently pinch Amelia’s nose before straightening up again.

Zhang Wen’s lack of further “punishment” actually made Amelia unconsciously show a hint of disappointment. Just now, she had almost closed her eyes, ready to let Zhang Wen do as he pleased…

That’s all?

The pretty girl lightly bit her lip and stood up. However, before Amelia could say anything to Zhang Wen, she heard the doorbell ring from the small room.

Zhang Wen turned his head and smiled at Amelia before opening the door again.

“Teacher Yelena?” Amelia couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise as she recognized the person outside the door, her heart pounding heavily several times.

Thank goodness nothing had happened between her and Teacher Zhang just now. Otherwise, if Yelena had caught them, she would have died of embarrassment! The pretty girl covered her chest, secretly relieved.

“Hmph.” Yelena’s gaze swept over Zhang Wen and Amelia, filled with mockery as she let out a cold snort.

“Something I can do for you?” Zhang Wen, familiar with Yelena’s arrogant attitude, simply smirked.

“I’m not here for you.” Yelena said, not even glancing at Zhang Wen as she walked past him and directly approached Amelia.

“Me?” Amelia pointed at herself in surprise.

“Exactly. I went to your room earlier and found you weren’t there. I didn’t expect you to be alone with Teacher Zhang.” Yelena said coldly.

“Teacher Yelena, what exactly do you want to say?” Zhang Wen still asked with a smile.

“I’m disciplining my student. What’s it to you?” Yelena finally turned her head to glare at Zhang Wen, “Even though Amelia participated in several martial arts competitions, she is still a psionic combat student. The inter-academy visit has already ended. When we return to Kasares, Amelia should naturally stand with the psionic combat department.”

“Eh?”

“Haha!”

Yelena’s words made Amelia widen her eyes in shock, and Zhang Wen couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

“What’s so funny?” Yelena glared at Zhang Wen coldly.

“You’re asking me what’s funny? Calling Amelia back to the psionic combat department—this definitely isn’t Madam Kaelen’s decision, right?” Zhang Wen asked slowly with a counter-question.

Of course, Yelena would not utter a single word in response to Zhang Wen. Zhang Wen also didn’t expect this stubborn woman to speak.

“Someone must have said that if Amelia could return to Kasares with the psionic combat department, considering she’s also a member of it, the psionic combat department’s reputation would look a bit better. So they sent you here, right?” Zhang Wen smiled as he glanced at Yelena.

From the change in Yelena’s expression, Zhang Wen knew he had guessed correctly.

“You’re being used, you know, Teacher Yelena,” Zhang Wen smiled again slightly, saying calmly, “Those guys have calculated it perfectly—if they can get Amelia back, great. If not, it’s only you, Teacher Yelena, who will suffer the humiliation.”

After Zhang Wen finished speaking, Yelena’s face had already turned extremely dark. However, after a brief silence, Yelena suddenly bit her lip and sneered again.

“Come with me.” Without any explanation, Yelena grabbed Amelia’s wrist.

“Eh! Teacher Zhang!” The force in Yelena’s hand made Amelia’s wrist ache. Unprepared, Amelia immediately cried out.

However, Yelena clearly had no intention of caring about Amelia’s condition. She turned around, intending to drag Amelia out of Zhang Wen’s room.

The relationship between Yelena and Zhang Wen had never been harmonious. In fact, considering Yelena’s attitude toward Zhang Wen when she first arrived at Fira, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they had a grudge.

However, with the psionic combat department seemingly about to face hardship, Zhang Wen didn’t want to take advantage of their misfortune, so he tried his best to forget past unpleasantness. From the moment Yelena entered his room, Zhang Wen had been patiently offering her a dignified way to leave. Unfortunately, Yelena seemed unable to distinguish between “weakness” and “patience.”

Weakness is patience without limits, while Zhang Wen’s patience had its limits.

“Bang!” Zhang Wen’s palm heavily struck the steel wall of the spaceship cabin, and his right arm extended in front of Yelena.

“Hmm?” Yelena was forced to stop.

“Did I say you could take her away?” Zhang Wen said, raising his right arm again, his palm revealing his familiar long sword.

“Ahh!” As Amelia cried out in alarm, Zhang Wen’s sword flashed like lightning, aiming at Yelena’s right arm that was holding Amelia.

Crash! The sword came down, splitting the room’s only metal table in half.

“You… you…” Yelena’s eyes widened, her face pale as she tightly hugged her right arm.

If she hadn’t timely released Amelia and withdrawn her arm at the last moment, what would have been severed by Zhang Wen’s sword would certainly not just be the table! Even now, Yelena still couldn’t believe that Zhang Wen had actually dared to cut off her arm!

“Amelia, you go back first. I still have something to say to Teacher Yelena.” Without acknowledging the still-shaken Yelena, Zhang Wen turned his head to speak to Amelia.

“Okay.” The flustered girl nodded hard and hurriedly fled back to her room.

After Amelia left and the door was closed again, Yelena finally recovered from her shock. Then, her eyes immediately flared with intense anger. Yelena assumed that Zhang Wen had calculated she would definitely dodge and had deliberately swung his sword.

“You bastard!” Yelena clenched her fists, her body trembling slightly from anger. She glared at Zhang Wen once more, still wanting to chase after Amelia. However, Zhang Wen once again blocked her path.

“What? Do you want to keep me here too?” Yelena coldly met Zhang Wen’s gaze without any fear.

At Almaceus Academy, Yelena had long been no stranger to humiliating male instructors who pursued her, especially when those men, in anger and embarrassment, tried to act tough. But experience had proven that those were all just empty threats. Yelena believed Zhang Wen would be no exception. Deep down, these men were nothing but cowards who only knew how to intimidate others without daring to take real action.

“You think I won’t dare?” Feeling the contempt in Yelena’s eyes, Zhang Wen smiled instead, withdrawing his arm that had been blocking Yelena’s path, “Yelena, I don’t care if you let others use you. But don’t drag my students into it.”

“I will take her back to the psionic combat department. What can you do? Surely you can’t keep that little…” Yelena’s cold, threatening words were abruptly cut off halfway.

Zhang Wen had grabbed her shoulders and pressed her onto the remaining half of the table. The sharp edge left by the sword’s cut hovered right beside Yelena’s slender neck.

“Yelena, I’ve tolerated you enough,” Zhang Wen said quietly and calmly, “Out of consideration for you being a woman, I won’t bother with trivial matters. However, what I hate most is having flies buzzing annoyingly around my ears all the time. Listen carefully. From today on, you’d better stay away from me and my students. Otherwise…”

“What are you going to do? Kill me? If you have the guts, go ahead!” Yelena still sneered at Zhang Wen.

“Kill you?” Zhang Wen smiled, slowly lowering his head closer to Yelena’s ear, “I’m not some deranged killer with weird habits. Our issues aren’t even close to being a matter of life and death. However, I have plenty of ways to make a beautiful woman suffer a thousand times worse than death.”

As Zhang Wen whispered softly into Yelena’s ear, his right hand slid slowly from Yelena’s cheek, down her slender neck, and across her full bosom…

When Zhang Wen’s hand traced down Yelena’s slender waist and slowly along the inner side of her sexy thigh, Yelena, who had initially been smirking coldly and letting Zhang Wen do as he pleased, suddenly struggled violently. She desperately squeezed her legs together and pushed Zhang Wen away with all her strength. Zhang Wen made no attempt to restrain Yelena further, watching silently as she rushed out of the room.

After turning several corners in the corridor, Yelena suddenly leaned against the wall, gasping for breath. At the same time, she tightly hugged her arms across her chest. Beneath her combat uniform, her long, beautiful legs trembled slightly, as if unable to support her weight.