The Legendary Mechanic c1-1385

by Chocolion, 齐佩甲

  “You startled me. Next time, tell me before you teleport here.” Ames’ voice came from the fog.

  Han Xiao’s vision penetrated the fog and saw a magnificent black, crystal bathtub in the middle of the room. Ames tied up her hair with a piece of white cloth and faced away from him, sitting in the tub. He could only see her snowy neck and moist shoulders that were tender like the skin of a child.

  “Bathing?” Han Xiao snapped his fingers. “Quickly finish up. There’s something I have to tell you.”

  “What is it?” Ames turned her head slightly, showing her elegant side face with water droplets hanging from her long earlids that blinked softly.

  “It’s about Aesop. He’s missing.”

  “… Give me a minute.”

  Ames did not mind Han Xiao watching and stood up directly. She heated up her body temperature, and the water vapor quickly evaporated from her skin.

  She walked out of the bathtub, casually pulled the black dress over to her with a force field, and donned it with a spin. She then took off the white cloth in her hair and let it fall.

  Beyond Grade As’ bodies would never get dirty; bathing was mainly for the purpose of enjoyment. All they had to do was adjust their temperature to that of an ordinary person, and they would be able to enjoy the feeling of taking a warm and comfortable bath. This way, they did not have to look for lava.

  “Let’s go. We’ll speak outside.” The two of them walked out of the palace and came to the garden. Ames sat down on the chair and stared at Han Xiao with a weird expression.

  “I allowed Aesop to go and help you, but you let him escape. That’s a little irresponsible of you… Did you deliberately let him go? You’re so bad.”

  “Ahem, you’re overthinking it.” Han Xiao coughed unnaturally and said without changing his expression, “Didn’t I come to notify you instantly?” Ames held her chin and joked, “Looks like even the universally famous Black Star still loses to a great prophet.”

  “He’s a friend after all. It’s not like I can really imprison him or something.” Han Xiao smiled casually before putting on a serious expression. “Enough with the jokes. My intuition tells me that there’s something wrong. Aesop might not have left on his own will.”

  “Oh?” Ames frowned, and the smile disappeared on her face. Shocked, she said, “Did someone kidnap him?”

  “I don’t think so. I arranged more than enough guards for him. If they’d kidnapped him physically, I’d definitely have found out.” “Does that mean someone controlled his mind?”

  “That’s the problem. I’ve had Aesop’s guards carry around all kinds of psychological guarding devices, mind wave detection devices, and energy radars on them. If someone used soul magic, a psychic Esper Ability, or anything of the sort on him, it would have triggered an alarm, even if it was from a Beyond Grade A. However, none of these devices responded… Therefore, I suspect that Aesop might be controlled by an unknown method.”

  Although the soul and mind were not areas Mechanics excelled in, it did not mean he had absolutely no knowledge of them. He was just not as good as those who were experts on the subject.

  “What method?” Ames asked.

  “I don’t know either. We’ll only find out after we find Aesop and check him.” Han Xiao shook his head.

  In fact, if this conspiracy theory was right, he was very curious about how Aesop fell for it. It was completely undetectable, so he had no idea what method was used.

  “I’ll find him with you.” Ames narrowed her eyes, and dangerous emotions flickered in her eyes. “Who dares to target my people? Do they think I’m dead!”

  “Don’t get so riled up. This is just my guess. We’ll have to investigate further.” Han Xiao comforted Ames.

  He had come to give Ames a heads up so that she would be mentally prepared, preventing the situation of her emotions going wild like it did in the previous life.

  Han Xiao knew Ames’ personality quite well. Sure, she looked like she did not care about anything usually, but her family and friends such as Aesop, Jenny, Hila, and Aurora were her inverted scales. Once threatened, she would turn into a raging dragon, leaving all rules and laws behind, and retaliate, no matter who the enemy was, not giving the consequences any thought at all.

  This time, Han Xiao told Phillip to send a message. A few seconds later, the King mechanical suit appeared beside him again. The helmet opened, and inside was Feidin.

  “Army Commander, I’m here.”

  Han Xiao nodded and explained to Ames, “Aesop’s prophecy ability is very suitable for hiding. It won’t be easy catching him using regular methods, so we’ll need some luck.”

  He was not just going to bring Feidin along for this but also Rody. Teleporting the three of them there using the King mechanical suit would save a lot of time, and he could use the Black Star Army’s troops right there in the Shattered Star Ring.

  “All of Floating Dragon’s resources are available for you to use. You don’t have to care about anything else. I just want Aesop.” Ames gave the right to command to Han Xiao without any hesitation and then stood up with a poker face. “We’ll leave now!”

  Chapter 1161 - Finding a Needle in a Haystack Is Where We Excel

  The universe was extremely enormous. Even if one had extraordinary individual strength, without a force large enough, one would not be able to achieve much in the galactic society.

  The Black Star Army was among the top armed forces in the Galaxy. They had manpower, resources, money, ships, and everything. As soon as Han Xiao’s highest order was given out, the Black Star Army’s men in the Shattered Star Ring started executing the order immediately. They searched through one Star System after another and locked down all kinds of transportation hubs to find Aesop’s whereabouts. The Floating Dragon Island’s troops were also mostly dispatched.

  Clearly, such a big movement could not stay hidden. It quickly attracted the attention of the entire galactic society. With just a little research, they knew that Dragon Emperor’s elder had gone missing. To search for just one person, the movements of the Black Star Army indirectly affected dozens of Star Systems.

  Such a deep search impacted the operation of some public facilities, which some galactic residents had slight problems with. However, given that it was from the Black Star Army and even the local civilizations did not do anything about it, of course, the ordinary residents did not dare do anything too. Other than dispatching troops everywhere, the Black Star Army also issued a bounty for Aesop through the local media channels, making use of the power of the people.

  A large monetary reward would be given to anyone who could provide any real leads to Aesop, such as witness reports, transit records, and many more. If anyone could capture Aesop alive and give him to the army, the reward would be an outrageous 135 million Enas. Ordinary galactic residents would not be able to even spend all this money in their lifetime. It was also humongous for some medium to small armed organizations.

  As the saying went, with a high enough reward, people would step up sooner or later. Some medium to small organizations joined the search team, and a ton of free mercenaries started looking too. Even some galactic pirates and scavengers were searching secretly, hoping to acquire the reward and clean their ledgers. The local galactic residents of the Shattered Star Ring also kept an eye out.

  For the time being, Aesop had become the focus of countless organizations in the Shattered Star Ring.

  In the past, Han Xiao was on his own and hardly had any forces; being able to capture Aesop was mainly thanks to Feidin’s luck. Decades later, his army had grown into a giant. There was no need to play hide and seek with Aesop like he used to; he just had to make use of his resources, and it would become extremely difficult for Aesop to go anywhere.

  Even though Aesop’s foresight ability was very powerful, all he could do was move with extreme caution and stealth in this kind of situation, not daring to appear in front of ordinary people.

  Of course, these were just th
e basics. Han Xiao’s core method of finding him was Rody’s prophecy, alongside Ames, Feidin, Nero, and Harrison’s luck, on top of his own Virtual Technology continuously calculating the possible coordinates Aesop might head to so that he could narrow down the search area.

  Dark red sandstorm shrouded the sky like a red piece of cloth placed over the entire planet.

  Through the low visibility sandstorm, a man in a heavy protective suit was walking alone on the red desert. The raging storm drummed his body like hammers.

  This man walked a few hours like this when, suddenly, a meteor-like spark of light penetrated the sandstorm and plummeted toward this man. He stopped and looked up, an approaching small spaceship reflected on the ally mask of his protective suit. Hu!

  The spaceship slowly landed before this person and released an air force field with a fifty-meter diameter, blocking the sandstorm and creating a clean area.

  The hatch opened. This person stepped onto the spaceship without hesitation, dusted off the sand all over his body, and took off the heavy protective helmet. An old face appeared. It was Aesop.

  “You’re the ones here to fetch me?” Aesop patted the helmet.

  “Yes, we’ll be responsible for getting you out of the Shattered Star Ring.” The captain approached him. “Don’t worry, we’re professionals, certainly reliable.” Aesop nodded with approval and said, “The single person space cabin that sent me here has yet to be destroyed. Go destroy it on while you’re at it. If it lands in Black Star’s hands, it’ll be a prophecy medium. Don’t leave any clues like that.”

  Due to the Black Star Army’s lockdown over the Shattered Star Ring, he could hardly go anywhere. He was barely able to find a space cabin and landed on this desolate planet and waited for quite a long time before this spaceship arrived to pick him up.

  “No problem.” The captain nodded.

  The spaceship took off, came to a desolate desert area not far away, and discovered the metal space cabin that was half buried in the sand.

  Bang!

  Two explosive light beams shot out of the spaceship and destroyed the spaceship. The flame only lasted for an instant before being extinguished by the raging wind, leaving only metal fragments shattered around that were gradually buried by the sand. After completing this task, the spaceship turned around, rose up, and took off into space.

  At the same time, Manison, who was in the Primeval Star River, received the message. He opened the surveillance footage, and it showed Aesop in this spaceship.

  “They finally picked him up…”

  Manison looked at the screen.

  For confidentiality purposes, this spaceship that had gone to receive Aesop had hidden its organization symbol. It actually belonged to an organization called ‘Milder Armed Transport’, one of the secret organizations Manison had planted in the Shattered Star Ring.

  Not long ago, the Modo Civilization had officially pulled him into the plan, shared some information with him, and asked him to help.

  Modo Civilization only did so because of the lack of a better choice. The lockdown of the Black Star Army was too tight, so they could not make any moves in the Shattered Star Ring and could not secretly transport Aesop out at all. They were almost discovered multiple times. Hence, they decided to borrow the Mechanic Emperor’s men and have him take over the ‘delivery’.

  “Modo must have used the Soul Swapper on Aesop and made him escape deliberately.”

  Of course, in the information the Modo Civilization provided, the existence of the Soul Swapper was not mentioned. They only said that they controlled Aesop using some kind of mind control method and did not explain further. However, they did not know that Manison had known about the Soul Swapper since long ago, so he understood what was used on Aesop instantly.

  Manison had no plan of stopping Modo’s mission. He even planned to cooperate with it fully.

  Although Aesop was one of the Ancient Ones, he had quit the organization long ago. The Ancient Ones were mainly Eternals. Beyond Grade As were a part of it, but not all members were Beyond Grade As. There were quite a number of unique members with special abilities but weak combat capabilities just like Aesop.

  Although Manison did know Aesop, they were not friends, so he did not mind Aesop dying.

  On this matter, his interests aligned with Modo. There was a chance using Aesop’s death to plot against Black Star would force him to disobey the Peace Treaty of the advanced civilizations. This way, Black Star’s reputation would be severely damaged, and the great image the three Universal Civilizations had been building for him would collapse. That was exactly what Manison hoped to see, so he was willing to cooperate.

  However, all of this was just the cherry on top. Manison’s main goal was still the Soul Swapper.

  “Aesop is now in my hands. He’s definitely come into contact with the Soul Swapper at a relatively close range. Through searching his past whereabouts, the rough search area can be determined. Through cross-referencing the records, the Modo Civilization’s secret fleet that transported the Soul Swapper can be found. The person who’s now controlling Aesop’s body should be one of the Modo Civilization’s men. Maybe I can hypnotize him and question him.”

  He did not know that the Soul Swap Twins had already escaped. He thought that the Soul Swapper was now being transported back by the Modo Civilization, so his search direction was already inaccurate.

  Not long after the spaceship transporting Aesop left, another fleet visited this dark red desolate island. The Black Star symbol was engraved on their exterior armor.

  Inside the command room of the main ship, Han Xiao, Ames, Feidin, and the rest gathered. This was a fleet commanded by Han Xiao personally.

  “Hmm, this is the planet, exactly the same as it is in the prophecy. It’s also one of the locations that overlapped between the areas chosen by Feidin, Harrison, and Nero.”

  Han Xiao looked down at the planet’s surface.

  Rody’s prophecy did not work all the time, but any information that he gave was crucial, and Feidin and the others had the help of the Advanced Luck Glow. Under Han Xiao’s instructions, they randomly selected some coordinates in the various search areas, and Han Xiao focused the investigation on the places where their choices overlapped.

  Although they had yet to get any leads, Han Xiao was still confident in this method.

  What he did not know was that he had only just missed Aesop multiple times. This method was indeed very effective. In a way, luck was truly invincible.

  “Scan this planet. Report any abnormalities to me.”

  As Han Xiao gave the order, spaceships departed from the fleet one after another and circled the planet using all kinds of detection devices to scan the planet without missing a spot.

  Normal readings showed on the screen before Han Xiao. There did not seem to be any abnormalities. However, after quite some time, some exciting news finally came from one of the spaceships. “Sir, we have discovered an extremely weak radiation signal in the desert. The sources of it are scattered and buried a few meters under the ground. Do we dig?” “Dig!”

  The image on the screen quickly changed into the view from this battleship. The suction device at the bottom of the ship sucked out plates of burnt black metal fragments that looked like parts of a destroyed machine.

  “Report, radiation source found. Analyzing… analysis complete. This should be the wreckage of a type of space cabin that was destroyed by an explosive energy cannon. Affected by the energy, a certain amount of radiation was left in the wreckage that’s gradually weakening. The radiation will completely disappear in a few days.”

  “Looks like we’re not too late.” Han Xiao’s eyes sparkled.

  If they had arrived a few days later and the radiation had disappeared, they would not have been able to find this wreckage. With this, not only could it act as a medium for Rody’s prophecy, it could also be used with [Bold Explorer). One could see the future, and one could see the past. Very soon, this pile of space cabi
n fragments was transported to Han Xiao. Han Xiao picked one fragment up, looked at the burn marks on it, and said, “It doesn’t look like an attack, more like a deliberate attempt to destroy evidence, probably not wanting to leave any clues to us… Unfortunately for them, we’re lucky.” Han Xiao grabbed the fragment in his hand and activated (Bold Explorer).

  Ripples appeared in his vision, and his vision instantly changed. He saw a space cabin falling down from the sky and landing on the surface of this planet. The hatch opened. A man wearing a heavy protection suit walked out from it and slowly walked away.

  Although he could not see this person’s appearance, he felt it was most likely Aesop.

  Like time had been shortened, not long after, a spaceship appeared above the space cabin, launched two explosive light beams, and shattered it into pieces. The images stopped abruptly here, and Han Xiao’s sights returned to normal.

  This footage was short but quite informative. “This is indeed a space cabin left by Aesop. A spaceship appeared after to destroy the clue, which means it was here to fetch him…”

  Han Xiao recalled the appearance of the spaceship in the footage. It was not a common model but a high-speed spaceship known for its hyperdrive speed. It was expensive to build, and not just anyone could afford it.

  “Phillip!”

  “I’m here, hum… Please give the order, master.”

  “Search all the people and organizations in the Shattered Star Ring who possess the Featherlight Grade spaceship. Don’t leave anyone out, and focus on any organization that has a stronghold near this area.” “Ah?” Phillip batted his large eyes and made a pitiful expression. “That’s a lot of data, hum… It’ll occupy a lot of computing power, hum…”

  Han Xiao gave him a stare and said, “Then hurry up!”

  Phillip reluctantly took out a progress bar from his pants, placed it upright beside him, and created a large box filled with paper. He then jumped in and started searching. The progress bar started moving at the same time.