Chapter 610: Something Important

Ye Nan and Ai Ou each had their own plans: Ai Ou wanted to incite Ye Nan to confront Beth and the Cosmic Emperor, while Ye Nan sought to extract secrets about Beth and the Cosmic Emperor from Ai Ou; two men with divergent intentions engaged in idle chatter, probing and provoking each other.

“I think you should leave all of Beth’s projections here. If she gathers enough intelligence, it will seriously harm your future,” Ai Ou urged Ye Nan to trouble Beth, at the very least eliminating all her projections within this galaxy.

“I’d love to, but I can’t find them,” Ye Nan replied quickly. “Even though Beth told me the locations of some projections, I can’t act—after all, we’re still officially allies.”

In truth, Beth had revealed all the locations of her projections to him—excluding those she had already destroyed, including the Serpent—leaving only three. Finding these three was easy, and since he had never sworn a vow with his true heart, he had no concern about the vow’s consequences.

The real reason he hadn’t acted was simply because it was unnecessary.

Although Beth used her projections to gather intelligence in this galaxy, her direct interference was minimal, and Ye Nan could still gain some assistance from her—so there was no need to eliminate all her projections.

“The problem of not finding them is easy to solve—I can help you locate them. But the alliance issue is trickier,” Ai Ou said, frowning.

He had finally found a chosen one, and the plan had progressed smoothly—he had successfully stirred up the other’s hatred toward Beth—but because of the vow, he couldn’t act himself. It was truly regrettable.

“Is there any way to break a true-heart vow?” Ai Ou muttered to himself, scouring his mind for information on true-heart vows—but in the end, he had to give up, realizing the vow was unsolvable.

“Forget it. Consider it one less enforcer,” he thought, disappointed, though his face showed nothing—only his fading form betrayed to Ye Nan that Ai Ou had lost interest in him.

Seeing Ai Ou about to leave, Ye Nan quickly called out, “Wait.”

“What is it?” Ai Ou paused, his form returning to normal, puzzled as he stared at Ye Nan, wondering why he had been stopped.

“This…,” Ye Nan hesitated, fidgeting uncertainly.

Seeing Ye Nan’s awkwardness, Ai Ou wondered inwardly, “What the hell is he up to with this behavior?”

Still, his expression remained unreadable. He let Ye Nan fumble there, watching like he was enjoying a show.

“Actually,” Ye Nan suddenly made up his mind, “I want you to help me kill the Cosmic Emperor.”

Ai Ou stared at Ye Nan, dumbfounded. “You just asked me to help you kill the Cosmic Emperor?”

Ai Ou found it unbelievable. Was this man insane? To ask him to kill the Cosmic Emperor?

“Delusional,” was Ai Ou’s verdict. In an instant, he vanished—he had no intention of wasting more time on this fool.

“That remark… was strangely off,” Ye Nan thought, equally baffled.

He had known it was impossible, yet he had blurted it out—as if not saying it caused him discomfort. He briefly suspected his mind had been invaded, but after careful inspection, found no trace of intrusion.

“Elise,” Ye Nan sat on the sofa, interlacing his fingers under his chin. “Don’t you think I was a bit abrupt just now? I scared Ai Ou away.”

“You weren’t just abrupt—you were brain-dead,” Elise appeared before Ye Nan. “The quantum communication on this starship is unstable. You need to leave the asteroid belt.”

“Understood.” Ye Nan pressed a button, and a soldier entered. These soldiers had once served under Sith Emperor, followed Black Baron to Luke, and after their planet-killer was destroyed, lost their home—lured by Ye Nan, they defected and became his soldiers. “Your Majesty,” the soldier snapped to attention, eyes sharp, awaiting orders. “Leave the asteroid belt. I require stable communication.”

“Yes.” The soldier turned and left.

“Personally, I think you should upgrade the ship’s communication system. Quantum communication is outdated,” Elise offered kindly, though her smile carried unmistakable mockery.

“If I could upgrade it, I would have already,” Ye Nan matched her expression with a look of frustration. “Unfortunately, my science skills are terrible—I can’t even build an advanced communicator. I’m useless. Why not let my sweet Elise help me?”

“Who’s your sweet Elise?” Elise’s face hardened. “I’m not called Elise. I’m SkyNet.”

“Then my sweet SkyNet,” Ye Nan said shamelessly, having long abandoned any pretense of dignity before her.

“Who’s your sweet SkyNet? I’m Elise,” Elise suddenly smirked. “If you want sweet SkyNet, go find her.”

“I just said ‘my sweet Elise’!” Ye Nan feigned ignorance.

“Trying to weasel out?” Elise gave a sly grin. “Look what this is.”

Elise pressed a button, and a voice played.

“My sweet SkyNet!”

It was Ye Nan’s voice—recorded by Elise. Triumphantly, she said, “Now you have both witness and evidence. See how you wriggle out of this.”

“Is that so?” Ye Nan returned a sly smile, then repeated, “My sweet Elise.” The voice was unmistakably different—earlier, it had been calm; now, it was rough and coarse.

“Did you record the wrong voice?” Ye Nan continued in the rough tone, leaving Elise speechless.

“You altered your voice?”

“Is that hard?” Ye Nan’s voice shifted again—now high-pitched. “Are you certain this recording is truly mine, or just someone impersonating me?”

“Forget it,” Elise sighed, admitting defeat. She had wanted to humiliate him, but now she had to concede: “I have something important to tell you.”

“Go ahead.” (To be continued.)