Chapter 182: Mo Duo's Telekinesis

The corpses of the Marauders were cleaned up, but they were not thrown into space. Without the surveillance of the travel ship, Dave still needed these bodies to prove that they had indeed been intercepted.

Stepping into the Marauder warship, Claptrap's Minion immediately linked up with the systems, projecting a massive amount of ship data all around Li Yu.

Energy reserves, ammunition stockpiles, the system log, and a series of other complex data were all fully integrated.

Following Claptrap's instructions, Li Ping went to deal with the remaining Marauders inside the warship.

According to the system log, Li Yu learned that this group of Marauders came from the No Man's Land System. Back in the day, they had actually been quite a renowned Marauder crew.

However, during the Star Gate Incident, they had been blasted into nothing but dust by the Star Glory Empire's Radiant-Star class warships.

Later, when the No Man's Land System fell into chaos and nearby civilizations intervened to jointly stop the Star Glory Empire, these ragtag Marauders naturally did not dare to get involved.

They could only scatter and flee, heading to other places to wreak havoc on different civilizations.

"I didn't expect there to be such a chain of cause and effect..." Li Yu shook his head. From the looks of it, he and this group of Marauders were truly fated to meet.

Many beings in ragged clothes were locked inside iron cages. Their expressions were completely numb, devoid of any emotional fluctuation.

"Slaves?" Li Yu frowned slightly.

"According to comparisons in the system log, they should be from a small smuggling ship that was plundered on the border of the Amethyst Civilization a month ago."

A smuggling ship like that held very little value, and the snakeheads behind it were highly unlikely to pay an exorbitant ransom to redeem their own people.

Furthermore, these smuggled interstellar races did not possess much wealth.

This was especially true for a small smuggling ship. Perhaps only the races inside were worth a little bit of money. This group of Marauders was officially planning to sell these beings at the next black market.

Sinai carefully followed behind, leading Keller. This Marauder warship was already old and dilapidated; in some places, mechanical parts had even popped out, metal plates were twisted, and electric arcs sparked sporadically.

Riiip—

Sinai awkwardly tugged at her clothes. The long sweater dress she wore had been snagged and torn in several places by those twisted metal plates, vaguely revealing her fair skin beneath.

She walked barefoot, her smooth feet treading lightly as she carried her high heels in her hands. Wearing them was simply too inconvenient inside the warship.

"Mo Duo, take them to their rooms first," Li Yu said, glancing over without a change in expression.

Mo Duo nodded and led Sinai and Keller away, following Claptrap's instructions to find a relatively clean room.

"Peyton, why are you following them?" Li Yu grabbed Peyton, utterly speechless.

"You are a great noble at any rate, can you try not acting like a pervert?"

Peyton thought for a moment. To avoid Li Yu misunderstanding and preventing him from contacting Keller, he explained:

"I am only interested in the blood descendant of the Grand Duke of Blood. As for that human woman, in my eyes, she is no different from moving carbohydrates."

"That human woman belongs to you," he declared solemnly.

Hearing Peyton's words, Hunter was startled for a moment, but then remembered that Mo Duo had already left, allowing him to breathe a sigh of relief.

Thank goodness that woman hadn't heard him, or else he might have been controlled again. He might have even been forced to beat the living daylights out of Peyton, who was a high-ranking noble...

Thinking of Peyton's identity, Hunter suddenly felt a surge of anticipation.

"Scram..." Li Yu was left speechless. Was his outward image truly that unbearable?

"First, tell me about this Grand Duke of Blood and the Blood Tide Event." Li Yu dragged Peyton toward the lower hold.

Peyton sighed in resignation and had no choice but to listlessly explain.

The Twelve Chief God Councilors of the Radiant Council were not permanent positions. Over the long course of history, there had been many changes.

A few of them had even been killed during the war with the Star Glory Empire.

The Grand Duke of Blood was once one of the Twelve Chief God Councilors of the Radiant Council, commanding the power of blood.

He stood at the absolute pinnacle of this universe, only to be dragged down from his throne during a universe-shocking divine war.

The era in which he was active was at least a hundred thousand years ago. The exact time of disappearance for a deity of this caliber was extremely difficult to pinpoint.

Even when he was no longer one of the Twelve Chief God Councilors, traces of him still appeared in many of the Radiant Council's renowned divine wars.

"...Later on, he vanished without a trace for a very long time, leading people to believe he had fallen."

According to what Peyton said, the Grand Duke of Blood had once been heavily coveted by the Star Glory Empire because he could bestow the power of immortality upon ordinary people, turning them into Blood Servants.

Even though this power was heavily restricted—including a fear of ultraviolet light and the need to constantly consume fresh blood to maintain physical vitality.

Yet, it was still a subject worth studying. However, the Grand Duke of Blood possessed absolute, root-level control over these Blood Servants and could obliterate them from the source.

After realizing this point through their research, the Star Glory Empire lost interest in the Blood Servants and instead developed a strong interest in his blood descendants.

As for the Blood Tide Event, it was a terrifying catastrophe engineered by a Blood Earl. The horrifying blood tide nearly engulfed the entire Mil System, drowning all life planets in blood.

According to the deductions of the Star Glory Empire's high echelon, the perpetrator likely wanted to use the massive blood tide to awaken the slumbering Grand Duke of Blood.

As to why they chose to do it within the borders of the Star Glory Empire, no one knew the reason. When facing the Star Glory Empire's encirclement, that Blood Earl straightforwardly annihilated himself.

The composition of the Grand Duke of Blood's faith was rather unique. The beings he transformed into Blood Servants could no longer worship any other deities, so he was set up and eliminated.

The Radiant Council was like a large group of people fighting over a cake. No matter how brutally they fought to the death, it was fine as long as they didn't ruin the cake.

But when someone suddenly popped up and spat a massive glob of phlegm right onto the cake, who could tolerate that?

"So Keller is the descendant that the Blood Earl left behind before his death?" Li Yu rubbed his chin.

Peyton nodded. "That possibility cannot be ruled out."

"Therefore, you need to let me study her. Only then can I determine which generation of blood descendant she is," Peyton said eagerly.

"Study her how? You aren't going to dissect that little girl, are you?" Li Yu asked, his suspicion mixed with wariness.

Peyton pondered for a moment, then solemnly replied, "If you agree to it, that would be the fastest method."

"Scram!" Li Yu snapped in annoyance.

The alloy doors slid open, and a putrid stench rushed at their faces. Even the normally functioning ventilation system could not clear the foul odor from the room.

Inside the metal iron cages in the room, beings of various interstellar races were locked up together.

Even upon noticing someone's arrival, their expressions barely changed; they were thoroughly numb.

The bodies of several beings had already partially rotted, emitting a nauseating stench, yet those beings showed absolutely no reaction, as if they could not feel any pain.

"How do we handle them?" Hunter asked, pinching his nose. A minor scene like this was not enough to shake his core.

"Their minds have been completely destroyed. Even if we let them go, it would be useless." Li Yu shook his head. To these beings, living was far more painful than dying.

Right at that moment, Li Ping walked over from a distance. Behind him, he dragged the tied-up corpses of the Marauders strung together with chains. There weren't many—only a dozen or so—who had been left behind to guard the warship.

"Your Excellency Li Yu, everything has been taken care of," Li Ping declared, his eyes burning with fanaticism.

Li Yu raised an eyebrow slightly. How could he have forgotten that he still had an incredibly overpowered title?

The blue-grade title—Mind Mentor. Li Yu had previously tested it on a mentally broken Li Ping, and as a result, he gained a fiercely loyal subordinate.

After mulling it over for a moment, Li Yu decided to give it a try. Merely taking these people in would be useless, of course. They had absolutely no strength, otherwise they wouldn't have been captured in the first place.

However, Li Yu still had a lot of Compound V left over from before, and he hadn't found a suitable opportunity to use it.

If he used it on these people, he could probably instantly produce a batch of Espers. That would be a very substantial combat force.

If his luck was off the charts and they awakened a few heaven-defying superpowers, he would hit the jackpot. From then on, he wouldn't need to do everything himself.

Acting immediately, Li Yu equipped the title and clapped his hands. Those numb beings turned their heads slightly, merely following their physical instinct to track the source of the sound. However, what they saw was a divine being radiating brilliance.

"Everyone, you have suffered..." Li Yu spoke up. More and more slaves turned their heads to look at him.

Hunter was a bit baffled and scratched his head. Li Yu couldn't possibly be trying to bring these slaves back to normal, right? How...

He wanted to laugh but couldn't, because he saw Li Ping standing nearby. Wait, how exactly had Li Ping been molded into Li Yu's perfect servant again?

Oh... right. Li Yu had casually spouted some nonsense that not even a fool would buy, and then Li Ping just believed it.

Fuck, was that bizarre scenario going to happen again?

Hunter muttered internally, unable to stop himself from taking a few steps back. He had absolutely no interest in ending up like Li Ping.

He debated whether or not he should warn Peyton, but seeing Peyton's indifferent demeanor, he decided to keep his mouth shut.

Heh, all nobles deserved to die.

"...You were not born to be slaves. You were born with the right to be free!" Li Yu delivered a passionate speech. The expressions of those originally numb slaves gradually turned agitated.

It was as if light had returned to their eyes. Li Ping clenched his fists, feeling as though he had been transported back to the moment of his own salvation, his fanaticism intensifying.

Peyton's initially indifferent expression gradually morphed into one of weirdness, as if he had just discovered something utterly inconceivable.

"Freedom!" Li Yu raised his fist and shouted loudly.

"Freedom!" "Freedom!"

As the slaves burst out of their cages in sheer excitement, one slave whose thigh had already rotted away actually stood up fanatically, shouting, "Freedom!"

Peyton furrowed his brows deeply, finding it completely illogical. He hadn't felt this way even when he saw Keller or witnessed the Titan Symbiotic Armor.

Because those were things he could comprehend. But what was happening before his very eyes right now defied all understanding.

With their mental states utterly shattered, it was virtually certain that these lifeforms were completely ruined. Aside from the couple ounces of flesh on their bones, they held absolutely no value.

Unless one used special means to reconstruct their consciousness, there was no saving them. It wasn't that the Star Glory Empire lacked such technology, but the cost of utilizing it was astronomical.

Yet this guy just spouted a few lines of nonsense and made beings with destroyed minds stand up and worship him with sheer fanaticism?

"The tricks of the deities?" Peyton guessed, but then immediately shook his head. "No, there's no fluctuation of divine power..."

"How did you do that..." he couldn't help but ask.

"By using my heart to move them..." Li Yu turned around and spoke with a "benevolent" tone.

"So it was with the heart..." Peyton suddenly understood. A wave of refreshing coolness swept through his mind, and his heart pounded relentlessly.

He snapped awake in terror, realizing he had actually been affected by it. With the heart? Only a fool would believe that.

He had been somewhat terrified by Li Yu's methods just now and was almost completely conned into falling for his trick.

'It didn't work?' Li Yu stared at Peyton's expression and instantly felt a twinge of regret. It was incredibly difficult for the Mind Mentor title to work on beings with a sound mind.

The slaves stood before Li Yu, their faces flushed with agitation. Right now, Li Yu was their absolute god!

"Li Ping, take them to wash up and clean themselves. Bandage those who need bandaging." Li Yu stepped back a few paces; the stench was truly overpowering.

"Yes!" Li Ping was thrilled. Finally, he was no longer the only one faithfully serving by His Excellency's side!

Returning to the upper ship cabin, the warship had completely detached from the travel ship. The travel ship once again entered the jump state, vanishing from the area.

The warship was also preparing to enter the jump state and head toward its destination.

Mo Duo was sitting in the cabin. Sinai stood beside her, looking somewhat uneasy and fidgety. She had changed into a looser outfit, though it was unclear which Marauder it had belonged to.

Little Loli Keller, however, was not there.

"She fell asleep. She overexerted her mind," Mo Duo said.

Li Yu nodded and then pulled out a blue little pill. "Oh, right, this is for you."

"What is this?" Mo Duo asked in confusion, pinching the blue little pill.

Seeing the blue little pill, Hunter seemed to recall his own appallingly bad luck, his face contorting with grief and indignation.

"It can awaken an Esper ability, though the exact effect is completely random," Li Yu explained.

"The Tridick Ability Activation Drug?" Peyton looked at the blue pill, asking with a hint of curiosity, "Where did you get that? I remember the Empire keeping a very tight grip on this stuff."

"Heh..." Li Yu threw him a sidelong glance. "This is called the Li Yu Compound. It has nothing to do with the Star Glory Empire."

Peyton shook his head and said no more, clearly not believing in this so-called Li Yu Compound. He was still pondering exactly how Li Yu had managed to pull off what he did just now.

"Awaken an Esper ability?" Mo Duo looked at the pill in her hand, raised her head, and swallowed it directly, not even taking a sip of water!

Almost instantly, Mo Duo had a reaction. Her eyes turned red, and her hair danced despite the lack of wind. An invisible power rippled around her, distorting the very air.

"Doesn't the ability activation drug take at least three days to take effect?" Peyton felt that everything he had witnessed today was completely beyond his expectations.

"I told you, this is the Li Yu Compound, not the ability activation drug," Li Yu continued. This item must have undergone some sort of alteration in the real world.

It contained a special kind of energy, the power of rules. Otherwise, it would be impossible for it to have such a powerful effect.

Items produced by the system all carried this power of rules.

An immense, invisible force erupted from Mo Duo's body. Hunter, Sinai, and Peyton were simultaneously sent flying backward uncontrollably.

Li Yu's figure blurred into a flash, catching the utterly terrified Sinai in mid-air. Sinai subconsciously hugged Li Yu tight. Nice catch. A very nice catch indeed.

Hunter's vision went black as his sight spun wildly. His internal organs clenched and throbbed, and his head felt like it was splitting apart. He slammed into the metal wall before tumbling down, utterly dizzy and disoriented.

Peyton, on the other hand, was unharmed. He stood up calmly, his gaze landing directly on Li Yu. He suddenly felt that Li Yu was perhaps much more fascinating than Keller.

"Telekinesis, huh..." Li Yu stared at Mo Duo as she slowly descended, calmly letting go of Sinai.

Telekinesis was indeed quite suitable for Mo Duo. Mental power alone struggled to influence the real world, but with the aid of telekinesis, it could be achieved. Furthermore, mental power could feed back into and enhance the strength of telekinesis. The two perfectly complemented each other.