As the voice of Hun Yuanzi echoed, everyone indeed heard a strange sound—a weird noise resembling an ancient, decrepit machine ceaselessly operating, its mechanical parts grinding together with a grating, teeth-on-edge screech. Looking up, they were astonished to see it was actually that strange spacecraft that had saved them all. But as it drew closer, the ship looked so dilapidated it was almost worrisome. Its exterior was not only covered in rust, but it had even sprouted white moldy patches. As it floated in the air, screws and other components kept falling off.
Yang Hao was utterly amazed. In this world, someone actually dared to fly such a decrepit spacecraft. Even more terrifying was that this pile of scrap metal had actually wiped out the Galactic Empire’s legions. Staring in disbelief, Yang Hao waved energetically toward the sky and shouted at the top of his voice, “Hey!! Divine Race seniors, we’re here, here! Hurry up and land! I’ve got a bunch of beauties waiting to welcome you!”
“Beauties, my foot! They’re refined and aloof immortals, not interested in worldly matters,” Hun Yuanzi was thoroughly unimpressed by his apprentice’s flippant tone.
But Yang Hao didn’t care about that at all. He had wandered around long enough and never met anyone who didn’t like pretty girls. He even came up with a multiple-choice question: “Divine Race seniors, what would you like as a reward for your service? Flash a red light for beauties, a blue light for treasures, and a black light if you want Elder Hede!”
Hearing Yang Hao include himself as part of the reward, Hede’s face immediately darkened. But as the Divine Race spacecraft descended lower and lower, he couldn’t afford to lash out. Instead, he poked Yang Hao in the back with his cane: “Behave yourself. You’re the Grand Leader after all. Don’t you know anything about diplomatic etiquette?”
Yang Hao was deeply wronged—he never learned any diplomatic etiquette in the first place: “Now we’re the ones asking for their help, so of course we should offer good terms. Only by treating the Divine Race guys well will they help us. What’s wrong with that?”
“The Divine Race are the highest-intelligence beings in the universe. They wouldn’t care about the things you mentioned.”
“That’s not necessarily true. Let’s just wait and see what color light they flash,” Yang Hao scoffed at Hede’s old-fashioned ways and raised his head even higher, watching the signal lights under the ancient spacecraft.
Just as Hede kept shaking his head in disappointment, lamenting his poor choice of Grand Leader, the Divine Race symbol in the shape of a “W” on the bottom of the spacecraft actually lit up.
“It’s a black light! They chose black!!” Yang Hao jumped up excitedly, then immediately widened his eyes in shock at Elder Hede, “The Divine Race really have peculiar tastes. They actually fancy you, old man!”
Hede turned ashen-faced. His tiny eyes didn’t even blink, staring fixedly at the black flashing light beneath the spacecraft, muttering under his breath, “This can’t be happening… This can’t be happening…”
“How can’t it be?” Yang Hao seized the opportunity, nearly bursting with laughter, “You said it yourself—they’re the highest-intelligence beings in the universe. Such beings might actually prefer men, and even prefer someone your age!”
“I’m old and past my prime. I really can’t handle this,” Elder Hede’s face was full of reluctance.
Yang Hao quickly grabbed him: “For the sake of Saint Bear Planet and the Renxiong race, just make this sacrifice. The Divine Race have profound abilities—they should treat you well. If you really can’t take it, just apply some Ice Muscle Iron Plaster. That way, all your body parts will stay intact.”
As the two of them were babbling nonsense, the spacecraft hovered just a few hundred meters away. A beam of black light shot down, landing right in front of Elder Hede and Yang Hao, as if inviting them into a trap.
Yang Hao was absolutely proud of himself. From the very beginning, he had known the Divine Race also needed a reward. What foresight! To ensure his insight wasn’t wasted, Yang Hao assumed the posture of the Grand Leader and dragged Hede toward the black light: “You’re the spiritual leader of the Renxiong race. Sacrificing a little charm isn’t a big deal. At most, we’ll keep it a secret. Everyone will think you remained chaste and pure.”
Elder Hede, having lived over a hundred years, had never encountered such a situation. Now he was truly caught between a rock and a hard place. In front of him loomed the unknown menace of the Divine Race, while behind him was the eager expectation of his own people. With no other choice, the poor old man could only nervously walk toward the black light.
Yang Hao was practically bursting with pride. During his time as Grand Leader, this was probably the most satisfying moment he had ever experienced. The elder who had always loomed over him was about to fall into the tiger’s mouth. He might even become a sex slave of the Divine Race. From then on, Yang Hao would enjoy peace and quiet—how blissful!
It wasn’t just Yang Hao who was delighted; even Hun Yuanzi was secretly cheering. He hated Hede the most, and seeing him in trouble made him happier than achieving immortality himself.
But as the saying goes, joy can give birth to sorrow. The ancients were absolutely right. Just as the old and young duo were happily anticipating their success, disaster struck immediately. Elder Hede was no fool—he had lived a hundred years for a reason. How could such a cunning old fox just surrender so easily?
Just as he took three steps toward the black light and Yang Hao was distracted by his own smugness, Elder Hede suddenly vanished from sight. Moving at lightning speed, he flew back and, in one fluid motion, grabbed Yang Hao’s wrist with an indescribably exquisite technique, flipping him upside down.
Then, Elder Hede leaped high into the air, extended his short legs, and gave Yang Hao a fierce kick right on the butt. Poor Yang Hao, still dazed and confused, was already sent flying into the black beam of light shot down from the spacecraft.
The situation turned around in an instant. When Yang Hao finally regained his senses, he suddenly realized that the black beam contained some strange force that acted like hooks, deeply embedding into his body and spirit, rendering him completely immobile. He could only float slowly toward the ancient spacecraft, dragged by the beam.
Yang Hao was filled with regret. He had been careless and fallen for Hede’s trick. He wanted to shout and curse, but he couldn’t even open his mouth. Helplessly, he watched Long Yun, who stood far away with his mouth wide open in shock, and Elder Hede, who wore a sly grin. That damned old bear even waved at Yang Hao as if saying goodbye to a great nuisance.
It was nothing short of a tragedy in the making.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was definitely a nightmare. When Yang Hao finally woke up, he was rubbing the big bump on the back of his head and cursing under his breath. He didn’t know how long he had been unconscious, but he clearly remembered exactly why he had passed out.
After Hede had slyly kicked him into the black beam, Yang Hao had no choice but to replace the old bear and fly aboard the Divine Race spacecraft as a reward for their service. But with Yang Hao’s personality, he naturally refused to surrender without a fight. Halfway there, he had already prepared a whole speech capable of completely dazzling the Divine Race with his eloquence.
Unfortunately, all that carefully prepared rhetoric went to waste. The moment Yang Hao was sucked into the spacecraft, before his eyes could even adjust to the blinding interior lights, he felt a massive club strike the back of his head. Then—thud—he was out cold.
Precious time passed by unnoticed. The first thing Yang Hao did upon waking was to check whether his body had been violated.
“Relax, I was watching over you,” Hun Yuanzi said weakly. “Some weird guy knocked you out and dragged you here like a corpse. He hasn’t touched you yet.”
Yang Hao finally exhaled a huge sigh of relief. Those damned Divine Race must have never expected that he still had an old ghost protecting him. He had been spared from any indecency after all.
“Where exactly am I?” Yang Hao looked around in confusion. This was a cramped cabin inside the spacecraft. Though the space was no bigger than a few square meters, the walls were covered with instruments and display screens, appearing highly advanced. It was a stark contrast to the old and worn-out exterior of the ship. More notably, the Divine Race’s “W” symbol was everywhere, almost to the point of overkill.
“It seems like we’ve been flying nonstop. We’ve been making jumps,” Hun Yuanzi’s voice carried concern. Although he was Yang Hao’s master, he wasn’t very familiar with high technology.
“Jumps??” Yang Hao was startled. The Divine Race spacecraft should have been staying at Saint Bear Planet. Even if no one had come to reward them, it shouldn’t have left so quickly. Yang Hao was still waiting to negotiate the salvation of the planet.
Soon, Yang Hao noticed that on the cabin walls, the instruments and displays together formed a massive star chart. Although these devices were far more advanced than anything Yang Hao had ever seen, their basic principles weren’t too different. After all, Yang Hao was the captain of the “Doomsday” battleship—even if he usually left the piloting to X13, reading a star chart wasn’t beyond him.
Within just five minutes, Yang Hao had calculated their current position through the wormhole maze on the star chart. He couldn’t help but exclaim in shock: “What the hell!!!”
“What’s wrong?”
“We’re hundreds of light-years away from Saint Bear Planet now. We’ve crossed at least a dozen star systems,” Yang Hao’s hands were trembling, “How long was I unconscious? Months??”
Hun Yuanzi’s voice was low: “Two hours. Definitely no more than two hours.”
Yang Hao’s trembling hand froze midair. He shivered violently: “Two hours? Two hours to fly hundreds of light-years?? What kind of speed is that? Even using acceleration stations, jumps can’t be that fast.”
Hun Yuanzi fell silent. He had a theory in mind but didn’t know whether he should shock Yang Hao with it.
Yang Hao was truly devastated: “What the hell is going on? When I wanted to leave Saint Bear Planet, everyone insisted I stay as Grand Leader. Now that Saint Bear Planet is in danger, I want to stay and help, but I’ve been kidnapped instead. Is the heavens themselves conspiring against me?”
“Heaven has better things to do than conspire against you,” Hun Yuanzi scoffed.
“Then how can it be this fast? The Empire’s technology couldn’t achieve such speeds. In the blink of an eye, we’ve crossed a dozen star systems!! Am I seeing ghosts or what?”
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