“Chapter 127”

"Chapter 127"

"Cecil Ronin remained silent throughout the journey, maintaining a relaxed atmosphere in the starship. By the time they disembarked, everyone was comfortably addressing each other by their first names."

"'Uncle, I'm going to take them to my palace,' Bai Sha told Cecil, 'Will you... go ahead with your work?'"

"Cecil nodded, offering a surprisingly gentle smile to Bai Sha's companions, 'I’ll attend to my duties then. Feel free to enjoy yourselves.' Saying this, he left promptly with his secretary and guards, without uttering another word."

"Bai Sha: '...' Was it an illusion, or did it seem like uncle was deliberately acting gentle to mislead them?"

"The Federation students, still unaware of Cecil's true nature, sighed in relief. Yanning even said to Jingyi, 'The Emperor seems to have a good temper.'"

"'...That’s thanks to the Princess,' Sino interjected, not wanting them to be so off-guard. 'The Emperor wasn’t so approachable before. Sometimes when he visited my father, and I happened to be there, his aura was so oppressive I dared not breathe loudly. But ever since the Princess came along, the Emperor does seem more tempered and stable. But don’t mistake it as him being easygoing. Don’t ever act improperly in his presence—understood?'"

"Yanning nodded in realization."

"'Let's go,' Bai Sha beckoned a small hovercraft, 'First, we'll head to where I live.'"

"Staring at the glowing palaces before them, Yanning was dazzled, 'It's like a scene from a painting...'"

"With today’s advanced holographic simulation technology, theoretically, any wonder one can imagine can be constructed. But holograms are ultimately artificial, and the experience is different from the real deal."

"Boarding the hovercraft, Jingyi leaned towards Bai Sha and asked, 'Which palace is yours?'"

"Bai Sha squinted and gestured towards a spot in the void, 'That whole area is mine.'"

"Yan Jingyi: '...'"

"'Turns out I lived in a palace. But after becoming the Crown Prince, the palace designated for the Crown Prince also became mine,' Bai Sha explained, 'I was too lazy to move, so I just connected these two areas.'"

"Many structures on Youdu Star are established on floating islands, which can be rearranged and positioned according to one's preferences."

"'Where do you want to visit first? Let's go to the game room,' Bai Sha led the way into the courtyard, where three or four cats lounging and basking in the sun came over, meowing and wagging their tails contentedly."

"'Are these your cats?' Jingyi crouched down, stroking the chin of a ginger cat. The cat, not shy at all, closed its eyes and enjoyed the petting."

"It's my cats," Bai Sha said, pausing and looking back at her military school classmates, "…but not everyone is fond of them."

"Cen Yuehuai, like all feathered spirit entities, kept a respectful distance from the cats, showing no desire to touch them. As for Sino and Jiya, even if they wanted to interact, the cats would avoid them – an invisible barrier seemed to repel the cats from their spirit entities' intimidating aura."

"Only the reserved Yu Yan managed to gain some favor from the cats."

"Bai Sha didn’t linger for long, making small talk before leading everyone into the game room."

"The lights in the game room gradually brightened, revealing an arsenal of modern gaming consoles, devices, holographic projectors, and immersion capsules, resembling a weapons depot."

"The game database, besides entertainment games, was filled with hardcore military simulations: mecha driving, combat flyers, starships, and more, including 'Realistic Starship Command Games'."

"Yanning chose a starship command game and tried it out. Sino approached him, smiling, 'How about a round?'"

"'Sure,' Yanning said, 'though I mostly taught myself and haven’t formally studied fleet command.'"

"'No need to be an expert, as long as it works, unless you plan to switch careers from being a mecha soldier,' Sino casually remarked, starting the battle, his virtual fleet shining like stars, 'I’m just playing for fun.'"

"They stayed glued to the table for two whole hours."

"The others were more leisurely, trying out various games. Although the games were novel, they were not addictive, making for a good way to pass the time."

"Bai Sha changed out of her black and gold military uniform, now in casual lace-trimmed shirt and pants, sitting on a sofa browsing data projected from her tablet."

"Zhou Xiao glanced briefly and saw mostly experimental data. He asked her, 'Do you mind if I take a look?'"

"'I do,' Bai Sha looked up at him, smiling, 'This is my patent project, linked to my financial income for the next few decades. It’s confidential.'"

"Zhou Xiao wasn't surprised. With resources and manpower, conducting experimental projects was quite feasible for them."

"Bai Sha turned off the projection, 'Though I can’t show you the details, I can take you to see some latest experimental samples later.'"

"Zhou Xiao picked a fruit from the table and sat next to Bai Sha, leisurely peeling it, 'What kind of project?'"

"'Research on new mecha materials,' Bai Sha replied, 'There are some things I can show you.' She then pulled up two reports on mutant slime molds and astrophilic worms for Zhou Xiao to peruse."

"Zhou Xiao browsed only for a few minutes before his brow furrowed and never smoothed out again."

"New mutated astroworms?" he asked in a low voice, "I've never heard of anything like this within the Federation."

"The Empire has been conducting deactivation treatments on them on the largest possible scale," Bai Sha said with implied meaning, "But this time, we still encountered live ones."

Zhou Xiao remembered that incident on the racecourse.

"Previously, the Star Devouring Worms caused trouble during the military school league in the Empire. Although it was declared an accident, the investigation revealed someone deliberately mixed them into the paint used by the mecha pilots," Bai Sha recalled, "This time, those mutated astroworms emerged from the walls of the racecourse..."

Thinking about it, keeping the astroworms dormant within the building materials, waiting for the racecourse to be completed, the audience to be in place, and the competitors to arrive before starting to spread, would require some special control measures.

Most importantly, the methods used in both incidents were nearly identical.

Bai Sha: "Did the Federation find out anything?"

Zhou Xiao shook his head: "Every link in the chain was without any anomalies."

Bai Sha: "That's really strange."

Could it really be the awakened Silver Core personally intervening...?

The motives behind both attacks were understandable. The former could have wiped out the top students from several of the Empire's military schools in one fell swoop, while the latter aimed to disrupt the joint military exercise between the Empire and the Federation, and even potentially sow discord between the two nations. After all, the material from inside the racecourse was indeed first discovered and caused problems in the Empire. Had there been severe casualties at that time, the Federation would certainly not have let things slide, or at least would have held the Empire accountable, such as questioning why the research materials and new species of astroworms were not made public, why mutated astroworms only found in Empire samples were appearing in large numbers on the racecourse, and so on... In fact, this concern still exists, but with no casualties and joint rescue efforts by athletes from both nations, everything is more negotiable.

The other party might have also laid groundwork for stirring up public opinion... But now, since the preliminary conditions have not been met, there is no need to expend extra effort. That's why news about the mutated slime molds and Star Devouring Worms hasn't exploded yet.

"This matter is being handled by the higher-ups of both nations, so we don't need to worry too much," Zhou Xiao comforted her, sharing half of the peeled fruit with her, "I'm more interested in your experimental results, though."

Bai Sha accepted some fruit with a thanks, turned off her light computer, and stood up to say to Zhou Xiao nearby, "Come with me to the lab—I have something to show you."

Zhou Ying remained seated, raising an eyebrow slightly.

It wasn't his imagination. Bai Sha's latest experiment seemed to have some special connection to his brother. That meant...

Zhou Ying: "Can I come too?"

Bai Sha: "Of course."

Zhou Xiao and Zhou Ying followed Bai Sha out of the game room.

The laboratory was on a separate floating island. They needed to take an air car to get there.

Through the air car's window, Zhou Ying saw a series of contiguous grey buildings. They stood out against the grand and mysterious architecture of Youdu Star, clearly a recent construction. On closer inspection, they were almost at the scale of a manufacturing plant.

But Bai Sha's ultimate goal in researching materials was to use them in mechs.

The labs and factories dedicated to mech research were no less significant.

Upon seeing Baisha, the two sentries standing at the door silently saluted her, then retracted their firearms and stepped aside to let her pass.

Since arriving at Youdu Star, Zhou Ying had become accustomed to the ubiquitous guards and soldiers. However, upon entering the building, the high-tech interior gave him a slight sense of disorientation—

After all, who would set up a laboratory right at their own doorstep? Weren't they afraid of accidents?

Zhou Ying sighed with mixed feelings.

Inside the building, many people in white lab coats bustled through the corridors. Two of them, who seemed to hold higher positions, approached Baisha enthusiastically upon seeing her, reporting on the progress of the experiments.

"Structural stability... production model... implementation..."

Due to confidentiality reasons, Zhou Ying and Zhou Xiao stayed about ten meters away from the crowd. Zhou Ying could only catch a few key words. Observing Baisha's expression, which was neither clearly satisfied nor dissatisfied, he couldn't guess the current progress of the experiment.

About three minutes later, Baisha returned and said to Zhou Xiao and Zhou Ying, "Let's go, I'll show you the latest samples." Handing each of them a pair of glasses and thin silver gloves, she reminded them, "Remember not to directly touch the samples."

They were led to a laboratory reflecting a pearly white light on all sides.

Baisha nodded towards the researchers in the distance.

A researcher pressed a button. The pearly white light on the exterior of the walls immediately went out. The walls of the lab had a frosted texture, appearing a light gray to the naked eye.

Strangely, as the lights went out, the walls began to display moving golden reflections. The shimmering light resembled the surface of water.

"Let's go," Baisha said with a relaxed demeanor, nodding her head, "Let's take a look inside."

The cold metal door opened with a "whoosh" sound.

The three of them put on protective gear and entered the dimly lit laboratory.

Zhou Ying adjusted his touch-sensitive gloves and looked up, immediately taken aback.

He wasn't sure how to describe the substance before his eyes—

Shimmering liquid-like material floated in the air. It had the luster of metal, but it was light and intermittently visible, as if it were breathing. From this angle, it resembled a living organism.

Bai Sha stepped forward and extended her hand.

The liquid substance seemed to respond to her call, flowing towards her hand and then delicately forming a few words in the air.

"What is this?" Zhou Ying asked.

"A newly developed material," Bai Sha explained, "It's resistant to impact and has some self-healing properties. It's extremely sensitive to psychic stimuli..."

As Bai Sha spoke, she flicked her fingers as if casting a spell—though she was actually releasing some psychic energy. The golden material chased after the energy, forming several tiny butterflies fluttering around.

Zhou Xiao couldn't help but reach out his hand.

A butterfly landed in his palm.

"Although there's much research on the new material yet to be completed, one certain thing is that due to its high sensitivity, Zhou Xiao, it can positively interact with your 'hyper-sense'... Eventually, you'll have a mech that you simply can't destroy."