Chapter 313: Spoils of War!

To be honest, Yu Sheng was quite surprised at this moment.

After all, he had seen those who could play the humble grandson, and those who remained impassioned even when death was imminent, but a grandson so impassioned was truly a first for him.

That flash of light suddenly vanished in the distance, obviously having used some form of teleportation technology—perhaps a pre-prepared safe hideout, or perhaps randomly teleported to some unknown corner of space; in any case, it had disappeared from Yu Sheng's perception.

This left him somewhat regretful—he should have spent more time studying the structure of this spaceship, at least looking for any offensive weapons, so he could have fired a shot at it while that flash of light was accelerating.

Of course, it was too late to think about that now, and although he felt a bit regretful, Yu Sheng had not left himself without any backup plans—while fighting that Sage, he had already let his blood seep into the steel and left a small "mark" on the opponent.

It did not matter that he could not track them now; the fear of blood and death would naturally grow, and when the time was right, the prey would return to the hunter's side.

So Yu Sheng quickly adjusted his mindset and turned his attention back to the interior of the spaceship.

That Sage had fled, but there were still those who had not run away—there were plenty of secrets that could be pried from the mouths of those surviving cultists.

In the chaotic control hall, the surviving members of the Hidden Order were still imprisoned in individual steel cages; the solid seals formed by living metal made it difficult for them to even move a finger, but compared to these layers of imprisonment, the damage caused by the Sage's despicable betrayal was clearly greater.

Everyone had witnessed the scene of that flash of light continuously accelerating and teleporting away into the void of space.

Therefore, when Yu Sheng's face reappeared on the spaceship walls, these cultists did not even react.

"Obviously, you have been abandoned by your 'Sage'," a voice like grinding steel echoed through the hall as Yu Sheng's face spoke to those cultists, "The so-called 'Path of Holy Veneration' and 'Noble Sacrifice' he told you about, I suspect even he did not believe in himself—so what about you? How much longer will you resist?"

Silence filled the hall for a moment; finally, someone spoke, but it was an operator who still held his neck stiffly: "D-don't even think about trying to bewitch us! Scum are scum, and we are us! No matter what, we will never bow our heads to you, you monster!"

Yu Sheng was instantly somewhat speechless: "... At least you are cultists, and I am just a good citizen dedicated to public welfare; your words sound as if our positions were reversed."

The room full of cultists instantly let anger override fear, with some even starting to curse like street vendors.

But Yu Sheng was too lazy to argue with these people.

He simply tightened the steel cages suddenly, silencing them, before speaking again: "Before I send you to your 'new home', I have some questions to ask you—of course, you can refuse to answer; after all, there will be more 'professional' people to interrogate you later, it's just that the process might not be so comfortable then.

"My questions are simple: were the 'Artificial Saintess' and the 'Knights' both created by modifying living humans? Where exactly did you capture these people?"

The only response was silence.

Yu Sheng was not surprised by this; he knew it was impossible to obtain such intelligence so easily, so he directly changed the topic: "Then let's talk about something else: what exactly are you doing in the Borderlands? What is your purpose in planting such a huge spaceship there? And what is the situation with that 'City in the Mist'?"

Another round of uncomfortable silence followed, and then finally a member of the Hidden Order spoke, but it was mockery and curses: "That place, full of errors and defects, which missed our correction and salvation, will sooner or later welcome a catastrophic disaster! You will know nothing—you will die with them! Everyone who refuses the Path of Holy Veneration will, in the end, die along with this flawed world!"

"Alright, I guess I know your attitude now," Yu Sheng said calmly; knowing he could get no useful intelligence from these people, he decided not to waste his breath on them, "Given my current mood, I actually didn't plan to let you live, but after learning the truth about the Artificial Saintess, I found that simply killing you lot is far from enough—come on, I'll send you to a 'good place'; there are professionals there who will get you to 'open your mouths' sooner or later."

The door to the control hall opened, but opposite the gaping doorway was not the corridor inside the spaceship, but a large hall in the containment zone of the Special Operations Bureau headquarters.

Fully armed Special Operations Bureau agents and Deep Diver personnel stood at the door; beside them stood Bai Liqing and Song Cheng—the former still maintained her cold demeanor, while the latter looked as happy as a fisherman who had hooked an eighty-plus-pound fish with a single cast, with over two thousand citizens surrounding him, a TV station filming nearby, and the whole thing being broadcast live to the entire universe.

Now, those surviving members of the Hidden Order finally knew where their missing compatriots had gone.

The living floor began to writhe, and amidst screams of terror, the last batch of 'captives' was also bundled and sent to the other side of the door.

Then, this spaceship, laden with secrets and conspiracies, finally fell silent.

The walls and ceiling in the hall, twisted and deformed during the battle, began to gradually recover; Yu Sheng's face disappeared from the walls, and after a while, a phantom door suddenly appeared in the corner of the hall, and Yu Sheng pushed it open and walked out from inside.

"... Finally done," he panted, tugging at the corners of his mouth, "Dying twice in a row, and Irene's mouth really is blessed."

As he spoke, he casually pulled out his phone from his pocket and called Bai Liqing: "Hello, this is Yu Sheng; have you finished on your end? Is everyone under control?"

"Everything went smoothly," Bai Liqing's calm and indifferent voice entered his ear, "Their will to resist was weak."

"That's definitely weak; after all, their top boss gave an impassioned speech and then ran away right in front of them, and before leaving, he killed over a dozen of his own people just to fight me," Yu Sheng's tone was a bit displeased when mentioning this, "Sigh, really, letting that guy escape... I was truly careless."

"The Special Operations Bureau has dealt with the Order of Holy Veneration many times; capturing so many cultists at once is already a rare great victory," Bai Liqing's voice remained faint, but the content sounded like she was trying to comfort Yu Sheng, "Don't worry too much about that escaped leader—the cultists you brought back are enough for us to piece together the truth of their operation this time."

"Hmm, let's hope so," Yu Sheng muttered, then seemed to be distracted for a moment before suddenly saying, "By the way, about the matter I mentioned earlier of giving the Artificial Saintess and the matching Holy Coffin to the Special Operations Bureau, I might have to break my promise."

"What happened?"

"Something unexpected came up; the Artificial Saintess is dead, and the Holy Coffin is broken; I'm not sure if I can repair them," Yu Sheng paused here, "And... the situation with that Artificial Saintess is a bit special; let's talk about it after I get back."

"Alright," Bai Liqing's response was surprisingly prompt, "So when will you be back?"

"Wait a bit longer," Yu Sheng said, looking up and scanning the surroundings, "I have an idea."

A sound of a slight intake of breath instantly came from the other end of the phone.

Yu Sheng was quite helpless: "Is my coming up with an idea really that scary?"

"... Just tell me your idea first," Bai Liqing said very calmly on her end.

Yu Sheng thought for a moment: "I want to try to 'drive' this ship back."

This time, Bai Liqing's tone was finally not so calm: "You can pilot the Hidden Order's spaceship?! Their navigation and piloting systems are notoriously strange..."

"I can't," Yu Sheng was direct, speaking before the other party could finish, "But I don't need to 'pilot' it right now—I just need to spend some time 'understanding' it."

Bai Liqing was silent for a few seconds on her end, seemingly trying to understand the meaning behind Yu Sheng's words; obviously, she gradually realized what he meant.

"... Like that valley?" she asked tentatively.

"The situation is about the same."

"You gave that ship the..."

"Ate it," Yu Sheng said frankly, "Otherwise, how could I send you bundled cultists batch by batch? With my combat power, how could I fight them head-on?"

Bai Liqing took a deep breath.

"Alright, I understand—since you have a better method on your end, the Special Operations Bureau will not interfere; wish you all the best."

"Thanks," Yu Sheng smiled, but just before hanging up, he suddenly remembered something, raising his tone, "Ah, right, there's one more thing! Oh my god, I almost forgot!"

Bai Liqing's tone instantly became tense as well: "Speak."

"I'm making calls to the Borderlands via interstellar roaming right now," Yu Sheng couldn't help but look pained as he said this, because earlier, while wandering around the spaceship during his resurrection, he had checked online the costs for this "Star Union Communications," and the number that popped up was enough to blind him, "Can the Bureau reimburse this?"

The silence on the other end of the phone spanned the stars, deafening.

Half a minute later, Bai Liqing almost gritted her back teeth to spit out a single word: "Yes."

"Oh, that's fine, I'm done, I'm going to study the spaceship. Goodbye."

After hanging up the phone, Yu Sheng's mood became very good.

The phase of settling the spoils of war always made people feel happy.

In the control hall, the scene, which had been in a mess due to the battle, was still recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Yu Sheng actually didn't know how to fix those things that looked like high-tech gadgets—he simply restored the damaged areas to the state they were in when he first "took over." If one had to study the process, it was probably somewhat similar to his "regeneration" after death.

Destruction was reversed; damage was erased.

This was also why, when that "Sage" attempted to self-destruct (though he ultimately didn't explode), Yu Sheng had to throw him out.

Because at that time, he had not yet completed the "takeover" of the entire upper area; once the explosion range exceeded this hall, the damaged areas outside would be impossible for him to repair no matter what.

He had promised Erin to bring back "local specialties."

Now, the "takeover" of the entire spaceship was reaching its conclusion.

With a relaxed and pleasant mood, Yu Sheng stepped forward, walking past rows of seats and consoles.

Metal writhed beneath his feet; pipes reshaped themselves beside him; dangling cables curled like living creatures back into place, returning to the grooves in the walls and ceiling. Accompanied by the humming sound of equipment coming to life, the power supply throughout the hall rapidly restored.

Behind him, the consoles that had once gone dark lit up one by one, with various holographic projections and screens displaying secrets concerning the universe, the stars, and the distant deep void.

Yu Sheng arrived at the wide porthole window and squinted slightly.

Bathed in the starlight from afar, amidst the radiation of the stars, he let out a satisfied sigh—

This local specialty would surely give Erin a fright.

(End of this chapter)