Chapter 513: The Gap Between People

"Alright, that's settled then."

Chi Jiuyu sheathed her long sword, and the pure-white sword-light suspended behind the necks of the two alien kings kneeling on the ground vanished along with it.

Although these few idiots were a bit brain-dead, a bit delusional, a bit overestimating themselves…

But first, no casualties had been caused; second…

What they were saying now wasn't necessarily the truth.

What if they were deliberately playing dumb, using lies to mislead her, while secretly cultivating bioweapons in the shadows?

The bioweapon hub had the function of autonomously altering memories.

In other words, even if these three idiots really had secretly come into contact with the bioweapon hub, unless they volunteered the information, she couldn't possibly obtain any relevant intel from them.

Even if she beat them half to death and performed soul-search, the result would be the same!

So, she had to stay on guard!

After all, she had carried out so many dangerous missions—consider herself a veteran.

Only taking one side's word at face value to determine the investigation's outcome—what kind of idiot would do that?

That kind of obvious idiot could never be a good Sect Master!

Marveling inwardly at her own prudence and wit, she turned and walked back to Wang Zuo, leaping lightly to sit down once more.

Gotta say, this Wang Zuo was still pretty impressive.

She planned to take a photo later as a memento.

Seeing that things seemed to be progressing, Changyao hurriedly leaned closer on his cane and said with an ingratiating smile:

"Since my lord the Immortal Envoy no longer has need of this old man, then this old man shall…"

He didn't want to stay in this place for another second—he only wanted to leave as soon as possible and not get mixed up in this mess.

"Don't be in such a rush. If you leave now, when I submit my mission report later, you might be labeled as 'fleeing out of guilt,' and when the sect sends more people, they'll have to come audit your side."

Chi Jiuyu looked at him with a grin, just like before.

"The people who come then won't be a Soul Transformation like me."

Changyao: "…"

Great—basically meaning he couldn't leave.

Chi Jiuyu no longer looked at him, turning instead toward Jige, whose arm she had severed, and asked curiously: "Let's eat something first. Does your planet have any specialty foods?"

In the past, the missions she carried out were all things like 'suppressing rebellion,' 'exterminating,' 'cleansing.'

So she never really had the chance to taste alien food.

She'd seen on the Spirit Net before that some races in the starry sky were skilled at cooking, and the food they made tasted really good.

It was a rare opportunity, and the miniature spirit-energy satellites were still gathering intel, and the mission report on these three idiots…

Ahem!

—the criminal confessions were also not yet written up.

Hearing this, Changyao immediately looked at Jige and said viciously:

"Why aren't you hurrying off to prepare!"

"Yes! Yes!!"

Facing Changyao, who had nearly erased him with a single finger just moments ago, Jige was terrified.

He immediately scrambled and crawled out of the royal palace.

"…"

Watching his retreating back, Changyao couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

He was, after all, one of the rare Void Return cultivators among aliens in the entire Fuling Star System, and everything that had just happened had made him understand the current situation.

This Xiang Jianzong Immortal Envoy was using him as a blade…

It was exactly what he had once read in a human book: 'one plays the good cop, one plays the bad cop.'

Although even to this day he didn't understand the allusion behind that phrase, he got the meaning.

'But this way… isn't so bad.'

At the very least, this Xiang Jianzong Immortal Envoy had a decent temper, and wasn't bloodthirsty.

Even when ignored at first, she hadn't gotten angry enough to kill these three beasts—instead she'd taken the chance to observe the situation clearly and put him to use.

He smiled bitterly inwardly, then his resolve hardened again.

Enough, enough.

Since he couldn't leave, he might as well cooperate properly.

The sooner this mess was resolved, the sooner he could leave.

With such a massive information gap, any extra moves would only make him look more foolish and serve no purpose whatsoever.

…

…

Deep within the Fuling Star System Garrison Commander's palace.

In the floating translucent screens of light, the spirit-energy fluctuation data had reached its final stage.

On the long chair, Zixuan Zhenjun withdrew his gaze from the distant Gui Ling Thirty-Seventh Planetary System.

"There's just no comparing…"

His own junior had spent so much time, yet hadn't even grasped the situation, getting led around by the nose by a few aliens.

Yet this Chi Jiuyu, the moment she arrived, had taken just a few sentences to get a handle on an alien Void Return cultivator and force three aliens to tell the truth.

Shaking his head slightly, he raised his hand and swept it before him.

He reconnected the communication he had just hung up.

A young man in a Daoist robe, sitting upright in a quiet chamber, appeared on the screen.

"Second Master?"

A trace of delight surfaced on his face — as expected, Second Master still cared about him.

"It's the one headed for the Guiling Thirty-Seventh Planetary System…"

"Before the mission report comes out, the specific personnel cannot be disclosed — that's the rule." Fuling Zhenjun warned coldly.

"I know, I know!" The young man in the Daoist robe laughed apologetically, then asked carefully, "I just wanted to ask… the investigator this time probably didn't get much, right?"

"In three or four hours, you'll be able to see the new mission report."

As participants in the mission, they all had clearance to read the latest mission report.

"Huh?" The young man in the Daoist robe froze. "Hasn't the Xiang Jianzong's investigator only just arrived?"

"So?"

"……"

"You'd better hope she didn't write into the mission report the part about how those alien races had you spinning in circles."

"Huh? Second Grand-Master, the Fuling Star System is the one you guard — could you maybe…"

"No!"

To jolt him awake a little, Fuling Zhenjun had already decided to teach him a proper lesson.

And Most Heavy…

He didn't think he'd have any face in front of that Chi Jiuyu.

Immediately, Fuling Zhenjun raised his hand and waved, and the projected image vanished at once.

He had hung up the communication once more.

"Hopefully this lesson will teach him a thing or two."

Being slow-witted has never been frightening; what's frightening is being a fool without knowing it…

He didn't expect this junior of his to become a heaven's favored child like Chi Jiuyu, Zhao Ruohan, or their little Martial Ancestor Zhao Ruoming.

Nor did he expect him to become, as his elder brother hoped, a being like the Holy Sovereign Abyss — one who led an era and shook the ancient and the present alike.

He only asked that he keep his feet on the ground.

【Fuling Star System — overall spiritual energy fluctuation summary complete. Generate report and upload?】

A cold, crisp mechanical voice rang out, echoing continuously.

Fuling Zhenjun looked up and, sure enough, saw that the suspended light screens had gone completely blank.

"No. Run a secondary screening and collation."

【Please select screening and collation method】

"Manual screening."

The Star Domain Guardians had a thousand affairs to attend to each day; naturally, they couldn't just send over the raw summarized spiritual energy data as it was.

Otherwise, on the scale of an entire star domain, the workload would be absurdly excessive.

……

……

Guiling Thirty-Seventh Planetary System.

Outside the system, on the star-route, a transit space station.

A special passenger starship, far larger than an ordinary one, was slowly docking at the space station, drawn in by the transmission array patterns.

Detecting the starship's arrival, fully automatic magical artifacts immediately drifted over and began inspecting the entire vessel.

Because passenger starships vastly exceeded ordinary starships in size, and the safety facilities installed within were of a higher grade than those of ordinary starships, the energy they consumed far surpassed that of ordinary personal starships as well.

Inside the passenger starship.

【Honored passengers, we have arrived at the Guiling Thirty-Seventh Planetary System, xx Route extrasolar transit space station.】

【This vessel will dock here for 0.5 standard hours.】

【Next stop: Jiling Star System, Yan Ling Seventy-Second Planetary System.】

【Because this route has recently suffered attacks, in order to ensure the personal safety of all passengers, please observe the following provisions:】

【One, please do not…】

A sweet voice echoed through the broadcast, reverberating inside the starship.

At this moment, inside a private cabin.

A woman leaning back against her chair with her eyes closed in rest slowly opened them; her clear, bright eyes reflected the soft lamplight.

After a glance at the reopened window outside, she sat up slightly straighter.

Both hands pressed on the table, propped up by its surface, revealing at her collar the lovely Bai Xi curve of her neckline.

"Guiling Thirty-Seventh Planetary System…"

All her eyes could see were the lights coming on in various places around the transit station, and one fully automatic robot after another closing in, inspecting and servicing the starship everywhere.

As for anything farther, all she could see was a stretch of pitch black.

Even the star of the Guiling Thirty-Seventh Planetary System was, in her field of view, nothing more than a negligible little point of light.

On the scale of the universe, the so-called plucking of stars and seizing of the moon seemed to become, in the desert, an ant moving a single grain of sand — utterly insignificant.

Even for one at the Return to Void stage, hailed as a "Grand Cultivator," who upon manifesting a Dharma Aspect could shake an entire planetary system—

What of it?

Faced with the vast, boundless universe, in the end they were nothing but slightly larger ants…

Without reaching Dao Merging, one remains an ant forever…

If not for the choice that came after, she herself should have already reached Dao Merging by now, shouldn't she?

Yin Zhihe felt a strange pang, as if scenes from that distant past suddenly surfaced before her eyes.

Her longing when she first joined Ji Shi Valley, her joy as her talent began to show, the surprise when she became her master's disciple…

"Master…"

The scenes before her eyes suddenly shattered.

All emotions in her eyes vanished completely.

No matter what the past had been, when she killed her own junior sister over ideological differences and fled the sect, she had already burned all bridges.

Of course, she did not regret it!

Over these many years beyond the starry sky, her conviction in her beliefs had grown stronger.

She recalled the scenes of humanity's rampant construction, countless alien races crying out in agony beneath human blades.

She remembered the vision when she received the Sacred Edict of the Blue Ancestor: the Supreme Divine Blade spanning the starry realms, causing billions of stars to tremble, annihilating one race after another.

Her heart ached as if pierced by knives.

Heaven gives all things to nourish humanity, yet humanity gives nothing in return to Heaven…

Humanity is a parasite, feeding on the world—only the Supreme Blue Ancestor can bring salvation to all living beings!

Her thoughts shifted, and every detail of the thirty-seventh planetary system of Gui Ling appeared before her eyes, clear as day.

She saw Chi Jiuyu seated upon the Wang Zuo, and the alien race trembling, prostrate before the desk, writing reports.

A flicker of pain passed through her eyes:

"How ugly…" (End of Chapter)