Forty millenniums of cul.., p.749
Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 749
He grinned toward Hei Xing and disappeared in the tube.
It was not until this moment that dozens of boy scouts, carrying sticks and yelling, came close.
Seeing that Hei Xing and the rest of them were stunned, the newcomers immediately asked, "Did you play Ten Square Victory with him?"
Hei Xing nodded in a daze. "What—what about it?"
The newcomers were all eyeing him as if he were the biggest idiot in the world. "What's wrong with you? How did you dare to play Ten Square Victory with Mouse Bai? This bullsh*t was brought to Burning Prairie by him!"
"Huh?"
"Also…" A pissed teenager grabbed Hei Xing by the neck and asked him rudely, "Did you see a Purple Sand Stone Pendant? It was my family treasure. The boy scammed me out of it!"
Chapter 1140: The Things About Mouse Bai |
The ugly, lean teenager Mouse Bai was running here and there in the living area, causing a great fuss, like a little mouse that had just stolen an egg.
Somebody was chasing after him wherever he went. It appeared that he had pissed off too many people. This time, almost a hundred boy scouts were blocking and surrounding him.
Mouse Bai shrieked and fled. In his desperation, he ran into the kitchen of a hotel and then from the kitchen to the lobby. Eventually, he was surrounded by dozens of boy scouts, including Hei Xing. One of them batted his leg hard with a stick. Mouse Bai was blown almost ten meters away after a scream and smashed into the ground.
"Mouse Bai, let's see where you can run!"
"Mouse Bai, take out all the money that you fooled from us and my family treasure, the Purple Sand Stone Pendant!"
"And my Silver Blood Dagger!"
The teenagers were all young and vigorous, and they had been tricked too many times by Mouse Bai. Unable to hold back their anger, they punched and beat him hard.
Mouse Bai had no way to counterattack at all. He held his head and rolled on the ground, crying and screaming at the top of his voice. He writhed on the ground like a lobster that was thrown into boiling oil.
While the boy scouts were beating Mouse Bai hard, several of them who were familiar with Mouse Bai suddenly had a bad feeling. Mouse Bai looked disgusting and was essentially a skeleton—a blow of wind seemed enough to knock him down. But his attacks were often brutal and unpredictable. Even several warriors in the second or third level of the Refinement Stage would not be able to get near him. Why was he so abnormal today and acting like an unfed dead pig?
This was a plot!
They looked around and immediately felt that their necks were cold. Their facial expressions were rather complicated, too.
Not far away from them, in a booth at the corner of the hotel, several tutors of the Burning Prairie Fleet, military policemen who were not on duty, and a few middle-level commanders of Burning Prairie were having dinner together. They were now looking at the boy scouts in a dazed.
"…" The boy scouts holding the sticks.
"…" The tutors holding their chopsticks.
The military policemen looked at them and then at the tutors. "…"
The boy scouts were so scared that they nearly peed themselves. Deciding to take action first, they stood at attention and said, "Reporting to the tutors, we have caught a thief who stole our family treasures!"
In the middle of the boy scouts, Mouse Bai, whose face was bruised and swollen because of the beating, struggled to his feet. His eyes had been dried, and he was wearing such a sorry expression as if he had been greatly wronged with nobody to turn to. Trembling, he took off the uniform, revealing his upper body and even opening his arms.
His upper half body, which was also bruised and swollen, was clean. There was no place to hide anything at all.
The boy scouts looked at each other in bewilderment, all lost for words. They could not begin to fathom how, or where, Mouse Bai had hidden so many crystals and treasures while they were surrounding and pushing him.
Pu!
Right then, Mouse Bai spurted out a mouthful of black and purple blood, as if he were suffering from serious internal injuries. White occupied his eyes while he leaned backward and fell to the ground heavily!
The boy scouts were all utterly shocked. Looking at each other, and then at the tutors and policemen whose faces suddenly turned gloomy, they were so scared that they did not even dare to cry now.
…
Half an hour later, in a medical cabin on Burning Prairie, Ji Wende furrowed his eyebrow so hard that he might have been able to squeeze two basins of water out of his wrinkles. He stared at Mouse Bai, who was lying on the sickbed.
Covered in the white sheet, Mouse Bai appeared exceptionally weak, feeble, helpless, and vulnerable. The guy was looking at him in a 'thank god you've come to save my life' way.
"Chief Tutor…" Mouse Bai called weakly, as if he would pass out again when he heard something devastating.
Ji Wende was immediately having a strong headache.
Ji Wende had been the deputy leader of the Star Fighters' Alliance before and was an old sailor who had spent his entire life on crystal warships. Several years ago, he had been involved in the suppression of the insurgency of the Immortal Cultivators, too. Piloting a seriously-wrecked light warship, he had blown up three crystal warships of the Immortal Cultivators in a row and stalled 'Heavenly Phantom', the antecessor of Burning Prairie, for quite a long time, creating an opportunity for the assault of Li Yao and the rest of the Cultivators.
After the Burning Prairie Fleet was established, the training geniuses and the descendants of the noble families in the entire Flying Star Sector had been filtered and recruited. The selection of tutors was stricter than ever, too. The best elites of the Flying Star Sector had been gathered.
As the deputy chief tutor of the Burning Prairie Fleet who was responsible for the actual training, Ji Wende was definitely one of the best Cultivators of the Flying Star Sector.
However, when the Cultivator at the peak of the Core Formation Stage who was more than a hundred and eighty years old was faced with Mouse Bai, a once-in-a-thousand-years freak, he still felt that his head was exploding.
"The 122 boy scouts who chased after and beat you have all been arrested. They will be disciplined in the most rigorous way!"
Pondering for a long time, Ji Wende said gravely, "This is the most serious collective violation of rules for the boy scouts ever since the Burning Prairie Fleet was established. What do they think the Burning Prairie Fleet is? And who do they think they are? Gangsters on the street?
"You are expected to become the most distinguished warriors of the Flying Star Sector, who will fight against the Imperium of True Human Beings in a hundred years!
"You did well in the incident. None of the surveillance cameras captured a picture where you fought back. Even when you were beaten up by a hundred people, you didn't move your finger at all but maintained the most calmness and concession. It was indeed an example for other boy scouts!
"However, somebody reported that you were part of the Ten Square Victory game…"
"Reporting to you, chief tutor!" Mouse Bai struggled to sit straight on the sickbed. Sincerity was beaming out of his bloated face as he said, "Firstly, it is a groundless accusation. The descendants of the noble families always consider themselves to be elites. They loathe that someone with no background like me is stronger than them in all the training subjects. So, they gathered and taught me a lesson! When they failed to, they decided to set me up!
"Do they have any valid proof other than the eyewitnesses? Photos? Surveillance footage? My fingerprints on the dice? I'm willing to be punished as long as there's any proof!"
"Of course they don't," Ji Wende said coldly. "Other people might not know it, but I know for a fact that Mouse Bai is too good to leave any traces however many wrongdoings he commits."
Mouse Bai grinned and pretended that he did not not hear it. He extended his second finger and said, "Secondly, let's say—hypothetically, just hypothetically—that I really participated in the Ten Square Victory game, they should catch me on the spot! Why are they reporting behind my back? Does such an action of betrayal fit the Burning Prairie Fleet?
"If today they can sell their comrade just for some petty grudge, won't they sell the entire Flying Star Sector as traitors without batting an eye tomorrow if the Imperium of True Human Beings is too overwhelming?"
"Therefore, Soldier Bai Xingjian, ID No. 23333, hereby suggests to the chief tutor that such traitors who bite other people randomly must be kept under watch and not be promoted to key posts in the future!"
"Enough!" Ji Wende found it hilarious. He waved his hands and said, "Little Bai, I don't have time for your bullsh*t. You can stop pretending to be weak and sick, too. We both know exactly what has happened! Why do you always have to cause so much trouble in your few holidays? This time, you've infuriated too many people. More than twenty tutors are accusing you at the same time. Tell me how I can get you out of this!"
"Uncle, I am truly innocent!" Mouse Bai replied with the utmost indignation. "You were the one who specially recruited me into the Burning Prairie Fleet in the beginning. Do you not know how decent I am?"
"I know. I know it too well!" Ji Wende glared at him.
The Burning Prairie Fleet was the future of the Flying Star Sector. When the news was out, naturally, countless training geniuses and descendants of noble families filed their applications. The recruitment conditions were extremely strict.
Even the talented young men born in the noble families, boasting family secret arts, with awakened spiritual roots, might not pass the scrutiny. An unattractive guy without any background such as Mouse Bai would not have stood a chance at all.
In fact, it was exactly what happened. The boy had been kicked away mercilessly during the first application.
But one day, Jin Wende encountered a street fight in Heavenly Saints City. A slim, weak young man was being beaten up by several tough men because he stopped them from theft.
However, no matter how hard he was beaten, and despite the broken bones, the young man gritted his teeth and stood up time and time again, waving his tiny fists and fighting back, until the policemen arrived.
Jin Wende, who witnessed the whole process in person, was greatly surprised. He escorted the young man to the hospital in person. After chitchatting on the way, he learned that the young man applied for the Burning Prairie Fleet but was rejected. Not willing to give up, the young man planned to work in Heavenly Saints City and study in a training school while waiting to apply again next year.
"Even if I have to die, I must die in the Burning Prairie Fleet!" the stubborn young man had declared.
The rest of the story was quite simple.
Ji Wende was patient enough to spend some of his time testing the young man. He discovered that, although the physical condition of the young man was mediocre, he had a natural-born connection with the crystal warships… as if he were the reincarnation of a crystal warship!
Ji Wende had never seen a guy who was so familiar with crystal warships before. Not only did the young man know the details of every type of crystal warships in the Flying Star Sector, even including the absorption index of the toilets on them, he also had the most precise understanding about the differences in specifications between two crystal warships after a single touch.
Therefore, Ji Wende made the call eventually and recruited the young man into the Burning Prairie Fleet.
He did not know whether it was the most correct choice that he made in his entire life or the biggest mistake.
Anyways, he soon discovered that he had been fooled. Mouse Bai's attacks were cunning, slippery, and brutal. Not just a few tough men, even if ten times more mobs had lunged at him, it should not have been Mouse Bai who was lying on the ground!
Chapter 1141: It's Allies That I Fear! |
Despite that, Mouse Bai's talent when it came to starships was definitely real.
After three months' preliminary training in Burning Prairie Military School in Heavenly Saints City, the ugly young man distinguished himself and proved himself qualified to train on board.
Ji Wende intentionally arranged for him to work in the engine compartment where the environment was the harshest, not because he was angry that he had been fooled, but because he wanted to polish the rarely-seen genius.
The engine compartment was the hottest, dirtiest, noisiest place in a crystal warship, with all kinds of radiation. The regular descendants of the noble families were often reluctant to go to such a place.
But Mouse Bai, who had been born on the street, was like fish in the water. He was soon approved by everybody in the engine compartment.
Ji Wende clearly knew how difficult it was.
For a super warship dozens of kilometers long to rush in the middle of the cosmic storms or to resist the enormous gravity of the Heaven's Origin Planet, it had to be as agile as a snake to avoid the turbulence, thunder, and lightning. Therefore, the engine compartment of the warship itself was almost a piece of planetary-level magical equipment!
Inside the engine compartment, which was as spacious as a palace, eighteen groups of super impetus units had been established. There were also eight anti-gravity units that were installed to adapt to the gravity of the planet. Every unit weighed tens of thousands of tons and was made of millions of components. They could absorb a hundred tons at once and transform the energy into powerful thrust through thousands of rune arrays!
It was not hard to imagine how difficult it was to maintain the normal functioning of the entire system.
The captain on the bridge could move his finger and tap the runes on the light beam such as 'activate', 'improve the power', 'activate the protective cover', or 'prepare for a space jump' to give out orders.
But getting to the bottom of it, to make the orders of the commander to move to every capillary vessel of the colossal iron beast and keep it running at the highest efficiency required the arduous work of everybody in the engine compartment.
In the Flying Star Sector, the skilled workers in the engine compartment were also known as sea wolves.
They were like wolves rushing in the sea of stars who boasted the keenest noses, the best knowledge, and the most resolute will.
The experienced captains all knew that it was much easier to find an expert in fighting who could blow up a meteoroid than to find an old sea wolf who could exploit all the potentials in the engine units of a crystal warship while whispering a tune half-drunk!
If possible, none of the captains would hesitate to trade ten experts of fighting for such an old sea wolf!
In precarious moments, such as when the warship was trapped in the center of a cosmic storm and scourged by billions of meteoroids, not just ten, even a hundred fighting experts would still be useless.
But an old sea wolf who could keep the engine units under control was likely to save the lives of everyone on board!
Burning Prairie was the best warship of the Flying Star Sector. Naturally, the most renowned sea wolves of the Flying Star Sector had been gathered in the engine compartment.
Those old men had spent almost their entire lives in the engine compartment. They could distinguish the slightest deformation of a tiny component in the depths of a certain engine unit from the faintest of noises. They could also make a crystal warship that was riddled with holes and running out of fuel perform another short-distance space jump in the middle of a cosmic storm.
For those who did not know them, they were all unattractive, cr*ppy grandpas, but for people of the trade, their names were all as resounding as thunder and legendary monsters.
However, even those monsters were amazed by the young monster Mouse Bai. Several old monsters of different fields were even asking Mouse Bai to be their true disciple at the same time.
"I've travelled in the sea of stars for two hundred year, but I've never seen a guy so talented in starship maintenance before!"
"The boy is definitely born for the crystal warships!"
"Damn it. He is like a black hole that is absorbing all my best skills!"
Today, Mouse Bai had created an astonishing miracle. After joining the Burning Prairie Fleet for only one year, he was already able to take charge of all the work of a certain post in the engine compartment independently!
It was still because he was just a 'boy scout'. According to the old monsters in the engine compartment, the little monster was totally capable of organizing the work of ten posts or mastering an engine unit on his own.
Therefore, when the boy grinned and called himself 'Uncle Ji', Ji Wende, as the deputy chief tutor, hesitated but still accepted the form of address. The boy was too talented to be missed out after all!
However…
The boy was as much a talent in the crystal warships as a jackass in other regards, to the point that Ji Wende had gnashed his teeth and more than once was of a mind to grab his neck, kick him in the ass, and blow him out of Burning Prairie.
"Mister… Bai Xingjian!"
Ji Wende took a deep breath and managed to suppress his anger. He tried to reason with the young man. "Look at you. You brought the gambling game Ten Square Victory to Burning Prairie at first.
"Then, you instigated internal strife between the boy scouts from the Horizontal Wind Space Zone and those from the Scooping Eagle Space Zone. Both sides thought that they'd found the wisest advisor who made up a flawless plan for them. It was not until they bled hard after fighting that they discovered that their advisor was the same person, which was you!
"Next, you pretended to be a seasoned officer who was in his seventies and swaggered around in the magical equipment, causing quite a fuss! Don't deny it! Although the truth hasn't been found yet, and perhaps never will be, I know that it was you! It could've been no one but you!
"Today, you trapped more than a hundred boy scouts, who are all grounded because of you.
"Tell me about it. What's on your mind exactly? Do you not know that people will hate you for what you did?
"Mister Bai Xingjian, you are truly gifted in the crystal warships. Why do you keep doing things like that and wasting your talents?"
