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Chapter 1118 A Gathering?
“A shopfront?” Xia Fei asked, slightly startled.
“Yes. Cai Kangnian is in the dark soul weapon business. The fallen Spiritualists also need a place to offload their goods to maintain a living, and that man is someone who specifically purchases illegal goods before reselling those to others.”
“Cai Kangnian, who used to be called Cai Rui, was denounced for his reselling of illegal goods. There’s been no news of him afterward. Who knew that he’d find his way to this remote star region with a new name? None of those could trick this old man’s eyes, though,” Fuchen said as he reminisced.
Xia Fei shrugged, unconcerned. “Ah, so he deals with illegal goods. What has that got to do with us? He can keep selling what he wants, while we can repair our ship. Neither party has to bother with the other.”
Xia Fei did not really have an opinion toward the so-called dark soul weapons. In his eyes, it was no more than business and was no more than underworld matter. This was why when Fuchen told him about Cai Kangnian’s situation, but Xia Fei did not think that it was anything to be alarmed about, though. As long as one party did not attempt to intervene with the other, Xia Fei could care less about the man’s business.
Fuchen nodded. “It’ll be fine provided that he’s the sort to stick to the rules, but if he has ill designs on us, then we’ll have no choice but to deal with him. I heard that Cai Kangnian had suffered from overstimulation and he’s not in the right state of mind. What are your thoughts about him after observing earlier?”
Xia Fei recalled every word and action of Cai Kangnian, “There’s definitely something off about him, and his words and actions just then were like that of a child, doing whatever came to mind, almost as if he only had a few brain cells left.”
Fuchen was a little startled. The Cai Kangnian Xia Fei had described seemed to be very different from the one he knew in the past. He had been a very vicious character back then, and many people who had tried investigating Cai Kangnian all ended up being secretly taken care of by him.
“In any case, it’s best if you take extra care in everything you do. No matter what Cai Kangnian has become, everything he’s done in the past is there for all to see, so there’s no telling if he’ll go wild again,” Fuchen said somberly.
Xia Fei smiled. “No matter what, the Silver Specter will be repaired here. I saw the equipment of this dock, and everything’s fairly decent. Besides, Cai Kangnian being someone who’s part of the underworld isn’t a bad thing; at the very least, he won’t be leaking the Silver Specter’s secrets to just anyone.”
People loved judging others through their biases. Cai Kangnian with his shady background was known for being a bad person, and no one would easily believe his words. This point actually worked in Xia Fei’s favor.
Fuchen frowned, curious. “If you intend to repair the Silver Specter here now, do you perhaps have other plans in mind?”.
Xia Fei chuckled. “I really do have some ideas brewing even if you didn’t ask, but now isn’t the time to share them with you. Just be patient.”
Fuchen shrugged helplessly. When Xia Fei got all mysterious, there would be no telling what crazy plans he was about to enact, and since he refused to share them for now, Fuchen had no reason to continue pressing the matter, either.
For two consecutive days, Xia Fei had busied himself in Cai Kangnian’s dock. Though he was somewhere desolate, a full set of equipment, comparable to what he would usually find in large repair docks of the Alpha Universe’s core regions, was actually available for his use here. Cai Kangnian even had plenty of those scarce illegal goods lying around here.
Ever since that day, Cai Kangnian had made two daily trips around the dock, looking and staring at Xia Fei’s Silver Specter but never mentioning his desire to purchase it again.
Xia Fei noticed that Cai Kangnian had had quite a few thoughts weighing on him, often heaving sighs after sighs, and he was never in the mood to manage his staff, letting them go about their work as lazily as they desired.
Furthermore, there was another matter that Xia Fei found suspicious. As if it had been pre-arranged, the number of warships on the dock had increased over time, with large batches of unsavory warriors appearing every day, a strong stench of bloodlust hanging on them. Without even needing to guess, Xia Fei could tell that none of these people was decent.
Command deck. *Snap*
Xia Fei connected the final overclocking electronic tube to the main computer, and the Silver Specter’s radar system was finally functional.
A ship’s radar was like a warrior’s eyes and ears; now that this system had been repaired, the Silver Specter’s mobility and combat effectiveness would see a substantial increase. Before this, Xia Fei had been using a small, portable radar to direct the Silver Specter where it should go, and compared to the composite detection that a large radar could provide, this ship’s radar provided a hundredfold effectiveness.
“Activate the radar system and give it a try,” Xia Fei told Radix.
“Got it,” Radix hastily replied as he promptly sent energy running to the radar system. The indicator lights began to flash rapidly, and then the radar initiated self-diagnostics.
Soul ships naturally had benefits, and with Radix acting as an additional brain, the intelligence quotient of the ship had become near human. There was no need for cumbersome settings, either, since Radix could answer with an affirmative to almost every command. He could also make snap decisions if anything unexpected came up.
“The radar system is perfect,” Radix gushed in excitement after the diagnostics was completed. From this point onward, there would be no need for him to grapple in the darkness as he flew, and to him, this was a good thing.
“Okay. Try and connect to the local network. I wanna have that person found and his current location known,” Xia Fei instructed.
“That’d take some time. It might even require me to hack into the system to repeatedly sift through and screen the public communications network,” Radix said.
“Don’t worry. We’ve got the time. Right now, it’s up to you what methods to use. Just locate that person for me.”
“Understood. I’ll notify you the moment I receive valuable intel,” Radix promised.
Leaving the command deck, Xia Fei arrived at the ship’s mess hall. Ever since he learned that this repair dock was Cai Kangnian’s, Fuchen had not taken a step off the Silver Specter. This was to avoid meeting the man.
There was a single window in the mess hall, and Fuchen had sat beside it, watching the people go by as he leisurely sipped tea.
By comparison, Xia Fei’s life was a lot busier, and he spent his days, even nights, repairing the ship. As it had not moved for tens of thousands of years, it was expected that plenty of things needed repairing or refitting.
“What are you looking at?” asked Xia Fei with a smile.
“People. There have been more and more people recently, and Spiritualists are even among them.” Fuchen turned his head and spoke in a low voice.
Xia Fei shrugged. “Zhang Er, who oversees dock assignments, has no idea what’s the reason for this, but it must be because he’s not part of Cai Kangnian’s organization’s main force. As for Cai Kangnian’s confidantes, I haven’t gotten a chance to get close to any of them yet.”
Pausing, Xia Fei immediately followed up by saying, “According to my observation, Cai Kangnian is becoming more and more uneasy with each passing day. At least three hyperspeed warships of Cai Kangnian’s have been on standby in the back end of the dock, ready to set off at any time. There’s even a ship that isn’t lousier than the Diamond Star, a fast Sea-Parrot class.
“Combining this with his reckless attempt to purchase the Silver Specter, I’m guessing that Cai Kangnian is in a very precarious situation, and he’ll likely leave this place at the drop of a hat.”
Fuchen was momentarily taken aback, muttering, “A Sea Parrot? I know that ship. It’s a small, hyperspeed warship with top stealth system. He must’ve purchased that at a very expensive price.”
Xia Fei glanced outside the window and continued speaking. “On top of that, those ships docked here don’t seem to be damaged in any way but are all here just for general maintenance. Even after that’s done, the people onboard haven’t expressed any desire to leave. The bar and the restaurant have often filled with people lately, too.
“Common sense dictates that sailors are all a pretty vulgar crowd, that they’ll pick on women when they gather, getting into brawls after having a drink too many, yet the sailors in the area are all very disciplined, their conversation while they dine are kept to mere whispers, almost as if they’re afraid of others overhearing them. Anyone unaware might even mistake it for a gentlemen’s gathering. Basically, everyone is acting too civilized, and that’s what’s making it very strange.”
Though Fuchen had not taken a step out of the ship, he had always been keeping an eye on the people coming and going by the dock. What Xia Fei had told him did not surprise him much; instead, he was puzzled by Cai Kangnian’s strange actions. In the Alpha Universe, not many Great Soul Eaters like Cai Kangnian would be afraid of others.
Smiling, Xia Fei said, “Looks like we’re really fortunate this time, to have accidentally been dragged into a conflict we were not supposed to be involved with.”
Fuchen shook his head. “To think that you’d still be smiling at this time. Cai Kangnian has an ongoing relationship with those people who forge dark soul weapons, meaning that the matter must be quite something. I think that we’re better off being on our way, for I’m afraid that things here are about to get messy soon.”
A flash of killing intent suddenly appeared in Xia Fei’s eyes as he said resolutely, “The conflict will be a mess, but it’ll also be an opportunity for us! Some people are perfect for elimination during the chaos, none the wiser.”
It was now the third day, and the repair of the Silver Specter proceeded sans a hitch. The ship was no longer how it used to be in the past, and while there had not been any changes to its appearance, its interior had undergone a complete overhaul of Xia Fei.
Fuchen had a lot of opinions regarding. Xia Fei’s habit of pursuing functionality over comfort had struck its head once more, and the perfectly fine mess hall now had a loud cooling system wedged right in the middle. This particular machine helped cool down the engine and improved the ship’s tolerance at maintaining top speed. It was just that Fuchen simply could not make sense of why it could not have been installed somewhere else on this ship; why did it have to be installed right in the middle of the mess hall?
The answer Fuchen received after asking Xia Fei only left him even more speechless. The engine was right under the mess, so Xia Fei could not be bothered to haul the machine down to it. Thus, he directly had it fitted right in the mess. In his view, the mess was a room that he had no use for, and a large, empty space that had a sofa in it was quite a waste.
Come nighttime, the atmosphere began to get weirder. All of a sudden, that huge repair dock became peculiarly quiet, and Xia Fei had no idea where everyone went.
“Get the engine primed. I’m heading out to look.” Xia Fei calmly gave this order.
“Maybe you shouldn’t go out. An evil aura is surging in this place, causing the hair at the back of my neck to stand on end. Something strange is about to go down,” Radix said.
“It’ll be fine. I’m fast. I can come and go in the blink of an eye.” Xia Fei was completely unconcerned.
*Whoosh*
Xia Fei got off the ship the next moment and went into an intricate series of corridors as he ventured deeper.
After a while, before him lay a forked path, with one leading to the quarters where people drank and dined. The other way would lead him deeper into the dock, reaching the command center as well as the base’s core facilities.
The situation was very off. It was mealtime right now, yet not a sound was coming from the eating quarters. Could it be that everyone had suddenly started fasting?
Thinking about it some more, Xia Fei darted to the path leading toward the base interior. There used to be guards stationed here, and they prevented strangers from getting anywhere near, but today, there was not even a soul in sight, allowing Xia Fei to enter as he pleased.
The repair dock was huge, but Xia Fei was fast. Under his Breath Control technique’s protection, he headed toward the core facilities of the base.
In front of him was a hidden metal door. Beyond it, he could hear breathing. From the sound, he could tell that there was not just one person inside; rather, there was a whole group of people!
Xia Fei furrowed his brows in his puzzlement, as he silently pushed open the door and stepped in.
The next instant, the situation in front of his eyes stunned him. He saw that he was in a well-lit hall, and all the warriors who had come to the dock during this period had all been gathered here. There was a somber expression on all of their faces, looking like they were waiting for something.
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