ABRIWMTHM Chapter 115

The tall star beast broke free from the planet’s atmosphere, once again diving into the ripples and entering the universe, continuously leaping again, finally arriving at a distant barren star.

The moment it appeared, the short star beast, which had been napping, jolted awake and immediately stood at attention.

It checked its posture and, raising its head, was stunned.

Its companion was covered in a bright red hue, its skin and flesh visibly torn apart, making its original white color unrecognizable.

“Rawr!”

The tall star beast let out a fierce roar.

Only then did the short star beast realize that it had lost. The short star beast began to circle anxiously around the tall star beast.

“Ugh.”

Did it not bring back a person?

“Rawr.”

But it was agreed that a person was to be brought back!

“Roar roar!”

What should it do if it didn’t bring anyone back?!

Too noisy, repeating the same thing thrice, the tall star beast couldn’t help but swat the short star beast with its paw, leaving bloody claw marks on its body, sending the short star beast flying.

“Roar!”

Shut up, be quiet.

The tall star beast lay down to recover its mental energy, its body beginning to self-repair.

The short star beast continued to circle around it, but after two laps, it was met with the glare from the tall star beast’s green eyes and let out a whimper, finally lying down under its companion’s death glare.

They waited like this for half a day.

Once its fur had completely recovered, the tall star beast asked the short star beast a few questions. There wasn’t time to find nearby river water to wash off the blood, it used its talent ability once again and leaped into space, sending out continuous roars in one direction.

The roars were silent, but the energy carried information waves that spread far and wide…

Until a star beast on a certain planet heard it, stood up, flew into outer space, copied the soon-to-be interrupted energy wave, and passed it further away, toward the direction they were coming from.

If the universe were shrunk to a perceivable size, you would see the energy traveling in a straight line through the vacuum.

Passing through countless stars, the information within was relayed by numerous star beasts.

Until it reached a distant planet.

The main star of the Third Army Corps.

When Chi Yao arrived, he looked at Shi Xing, who was floating in mid-air with closed eyes, and felt his heart skip a beat.

In the next moment, Shi Xing seemingly sensed something and opened his eyes.

“Sorry, I’m a bit tired.”

Having been tossed around in mid-air, Shi Xing’s mental energy was drained.

Before anyone could ask, Shi Xing spoke first, “Your Highness, Sister Er Ya, I saw a talking star beast again.”

After a pause, Shi Xing’s brows were firmly set: “I have something to tell you.”

The night wind howled, as the First Army Corps dealt with over ten low-tier star beasts, Shi Xing found a secluded spot and explained what had happened today in detail.

When Chi Yao heard that the star beasts had previously captured Blue Star humans, his brows furrowed slightly, evidently thinking of something.

After Shi Xing finished his last word.

Chi Yao said, “The Empire has a few cases of missing Blue Star humans, but the numbers are quite small, less than two.”

Er Ya thought of something else, “With such high levels, there might be a completely wiped-out team of Blue Star human companions attempting to rob at the boundary line. The missing Blue Star humans are generally assumed to have been devoured by star beasts, and their bodies are never found.”

Shi Xing’s expression turned grim, “That should be it, otherwise, they wouldn’t know that matured Blue Star humans have poor physical quality and can’t be treated if injured on the road.”

It was clear that something had gone wrong before, which is why they knew so much.

In other words, among the Blue Star humans they took away, there must have been those who had died in such a manner.

Chi Yao said, “The examples of disappearance are all from fifty years ago. If we’re talking about similarities, the dates are pretty close, and the commonality is that they were the highest-ranked matured Blue Star humans at that time.”

Er Ya asked, “Why not find a therapist?”

As soon as she spoke, she immediately answered herself, “Oh, therapists’ mental power is usually contained, they probably can’t be found.”

After Blue Star humans reach maturity, they no longer have leaking mental power, and their mental power isn’t aggressive. After maturity, they mostly appear in medical situations, entering the patient’s mental sea. In such cases, with the coverage of the patient’s mental power, concealment is greatly enhanced.

It’s truly hard to locate them.

As soon as Er Ya asked this, Shi Xing thought of something else, “So, what they want the Blue Star humans to do could be done by either matured or unmatured Blue Star humans?”

Er Ya’s eyelashes trembled as she realized something, hesitating, “That… doesn’t make sense, does it?”

If what they wanted was the healing ability of the Blue Star humans, then that was clearly incorrect.

Totally incorrect.

If it’s about healing abilities, they should be capturing therapists instead.

With the star beast’s level, it could easily escape under the circumstances of Shi Xing dragging things out, and with such high talent, capturing a therapist would pose no problem, but…

Chi Yao said, “So, if they want to take you, it’s probably not for the healing abilities of the Blue Star humans.”

“Or rather, that’s not the main reason.”

Shi Xing replied, “Star beasts have strong self-healing abilities, seeking Blue Star humans for treatment doesn’t feel right in theory.”

Er Ya pointed out, “Treatment wouldn’t lead to the death of a Blue Star human. The term ‘not useful’ used by it doesn’t hold water; if it’s too low-level, according to star beast socialization level, it should be more appropriate to say ‘useless.'”

Shi Xing murmured, “But what do they actually want from us? Besides healing abilities, do Blue Star humans have any other recognized abilities?”

The three fell silent.

The question was very core, yet it was also their blind spot.

Shi Xing wasn’t entangled by the unanswered question.

If there was no result from the discussion, he skipped over it and continued, “From what it said, it knows where the Blue Stars are, and it knows what happened before.”

With a soft exhale, Shi Xing remarked, “It’s a pity it didn’t leave behind anything; otherwise, we could’ve known its age through its bones.”

Er Ya couldn’t bear it and advised, “You’ve already done well.”

Chi Yao looked at Shi Xing, hesitantly placing a hand on his shoulder. Though he didn’t say anything, Shi Xing could see from Chi Yao’s eyes that the emotions he revealed were the same as Er Ya’s.

Shi Xing nodded, accepting their concern.

“By the way, Sister Er Ya, I also want to conduct an experiment.”

Shi Xing used the skill he had just learned to “speak” to Er Ya.

After saying a few words, Er Ya went from confusion to her pupils contracting sharply.

“You understood.” Shi Xing confirmed.

Er Ya touched her own ear, shocked beyond belief, incredulously saying, “How did you do that?”

“I think it should be the ability of Blue Star humans.”

Thinking of the unusual flow of energy in the dream, Shi Xing said uncertainly, “Perhaps we communicated like this before.”

Otherwise, there wouldn’t be the phrasing of “you should know” from the star beasts.

Thinking of something, Er Ya’s back hair stood up, “If it’s the ability of Blue Star humans, then how could these star beasts possess it?!”

Shi Xing shrugged.

There were many foreseeable answers, and each was terrifying upon closer inspection.

Chi Yao blocked normal paths, “Given the nature of star beasts, it’s impossible for them to have learned it from Blue Star humans.”

Er Ya rubbed her hands, her arms covered in goosebumps, “The more we talk about it, the more I don’t dare to think deeply.”

The communicator reported that all star beasts had been captured.

More than ten of them, clearly impossible to bring back to the garrison point.

Shi Xing went up to inspect each one, and results came from Fei Chu’s side, “Based on the residual mental energy in the air, their level is definitely above 3s, and roughly they may have exceeded D-class in extent of mutation.”

Fei Chu was also a bit shocked, mumbling, “This thing can’t be at F, right?”

From Shi Xing’s denial, “This is just the first batch that arrived. If it’s above D, then it should be E; F is impossible. Perhaps their king beast could reach F.”

Fei Chu hadn’t heard what Shi Xing had just recounted and was astonished, “They have a king beast in their colony?!”

The last appearance of a king beast was during the beast tide three hundred years ago; if another one were to show up… At this thought, Chu’s mind somewhat stalled.

Shi Xing said, “I feel there should be one.”

“Just like our battle, the vanguard is all unmanned battleships; would you allow His Highness to go up there from the start?”

Fei Chu: “…”

Fei Chu: “Thank you, but listening to this makes it even harder for me to breathe!”

After examining all the star beasts, Shi Xing’s expression darkened significantly as he gazed at the sky, lost in thought for over a dozen seconds under this high-pressure atmosphere.

Finally, looking down again, he straightened his expression and confirmed.

“Your Highness, although I don’t know what method was used, this star beast can control other star beasts.”

Among the remaining more than ten star beasts, Shi Xing felt no power derived from the white star beast in their mental power or beast cores.

Therefore, it could command and direct not only the star beasts belonging to its colony.

“Both normal star beasts and mutated star beasts are within its control.”

“It ran away today, I’m sure it will come back.”

With a hint of regret, Shi Xing said, “We might need to prepare for battle.”

For this star beast, how many companions it could find was secondary.

Just a gathering of the mutated star beasts originally stationed on the star would be enough to give them a headache.

Chi Yao also realized the seriousness of the situation and followed suit, looking up at the sky.

What he was looking at wasn’t the sky but the universe’s depths, an unknowable number, but undoubtedly, star beasts would gather again in the short term.

After a moment of silence, Chi Yao decisively said, “Notify all garrison points on the surrounding boundary lines to jointly activate a Level 1 defensive barrier.”

He announced, “From this moment on, unauthorized personnel on the boundary line will withdraw to the Empire, and all troops will enter a state of readiness.”

Shi Xing’s voice was soft but resolute, “Prepare the mother ship at the garrison point and send Bi Zhou back to the Empire.”

After saying this, Chi Yao’s gaze fell on Shi Xing. Shi Xing understood what he wanted to say, smiled, and simply extended his hand to Chi Yao.

Chi Yao stared at him intensely, emotions swirling in his eyes.

Shi Xing did not lower his wrist.

In silence, something was held in a stalemate.

“Your Highness, have you forgotten that to me, there’s no safer place than by your side.”

Shi Xing spoke casually.

What he said was an undeniable fact.

If Chi Yao and this many troops couldn’t protect him, then the Empire wouldn’t be safe either.

In the end, Chi Yao still grasped Shi Xing’s hand tightly.

The two reached a silent consensus — before the next wave of beasts arrived, Shi Xing would not be sent back to the Empire.

Shi Xing wanted to ease Chi Yao’s heart, lightly saying on the way back to the battleship, “I’m not weak now; my abilities might be of help.”

Chi Yao forcefully replied, “You don’t need to help. Just stay honestly with the troops.”

Shi Xing flashed a shallow smile, having come this far, he finally softened, “Your Highness, you are going too fast. We’ve been fighting for so long, I can’t keep up.”

He thought Chi Yao would slow down, but instead, the latter stopped, turned around, and directly picked Shi Xing up entirely, heading toward the battleship.

Surprised for just a moment, Shi Xing adapted well, wrapping his arms around Chi Yao’s shoulders to maintain balance.

“I want to drink crystal fruit juice,” Shi Xing mumbled.

If it weren’t for the white star beast, he would have finished the one made by Chang Yue.

“Let someone make it when we go back.”

Shi Xing nodded, slightly closing his eyes, lazily saying, “Okay.”

In less than a day, there was a constant flow of people at the garrison point.

That night, Bi Zhou was stuffed into the mother ship.

At Lu Li’s request, besides the excess medical staff and non-essential personnel, his brother was also stuffed in before the mother ship took off.

The way he entered was quite special; he didn’t walk in by himself but was carried in along with the sleeping pod.

Watching the mother ship take off and leave the main star, Lu Li sighed.

“When he wakes up, he should be in the Empire.”

The next day, satellites relayed messages that the mutated star beasts, initially remaining on the planet for some unknown reason, began to migrate collectively.

The satellite images captured the shocking scene of dozens to hundreds of star beasts taking off.

And their destination was precisely the main star of the Third Army Corps.

The planet where Chi Yao and Shi Xing were located.