by <unknown>
If they got Manison’s help to transport Aesop out of the Shattered Star Ring, the success rate would be much higher than if they did it themselves.
Although the three of them had yet to decide whether or not to let the Mechanic Emperor take part in this operation, another layer of insurance would never be a bad thing. If they had no way of sending Aesop out of the Shattered Star Ring, it would not be too late to ask the Mechanic Emperor to help. Furthermore, if Aesop died in the Mechanic Emperor’s hands, they would achieve their goal all the same, with greater results than they could have hoped for!
However, while the three of them were having these thoughts, they had no idea that Manison’s motive of proposing this partnership was anything but pure. Although he did want to cause problems for Black Star, it was not his main goal.
His sources showed that the Modo Civilization had moved the Soul Swapper out, so it was definitely going to be used on someone, most likely Black Star. Therefore, Manison wanted to use Black Star as an excuse to work with Modo, attempt to take part in the related operation to obtain more information, and find the whereabouts of the Soul Swapper.
Robbing the Soul Swapper was his true goal! After all, he would not incur any losses even if he failed, so it was worth a try.
In the cabin, two bodies shrouded in darkness laid on the ground, one large and one small. They were completely stationery like vegetables. It was the Soul Swap Twins.
Two normal-sized Spacehumans stood on the side, one male and one female. They were stretching their bodies, and the dark Soul Swapper hovered beside them.
“This body is a Pugilist with a strong physique. It feels quite good. It’s been long since I’ve felt this healthy.” The male rubbed his neck with a comfortable expression.
“Stop dawdling,” the female scolded. “This is just a temporary shell. Quickly pick up our original bodies.”
The man and woman were the Soul Swap Twins who had changed their bodies. The elder brother was Jill Emmerson, and the younger brother was Warren Emmerson.
The Soul Swapper worked on them too. They could swap their own souls into someone else’s body. After swapping bodies, their Esper Ability would not be swapped too, and they would only be as strong as the new body. For example, if they swapped into a Grade D Super, they would also become Grade D. However, their souls would be unaffected and remain at Grade B, so their ability to use the Soul Swapper would not be affected either.
Their right to use the Soul Swapper came from their soul and had nothing to do with their bodies, so they would be able to use it even if they were in the body of a dog.
This ability was one of the reasons the two of them were confident in escaping successfully
—they could keep switching bodies and be very difficult to find.
“Elder bro, although we’re free now, we haven’t got rid of that…” Warren pointed at his own head.
“Hmm, that mind trap is a problem. Luckily, the Modo Civilization probably thinks we can’t even detect it.”
Jill curled his lips with disdain.
The mind trap the direct Beyond Grade A Mage of the Modo Civilization planted into their souls would not disappear when they changed bodies.
Accordingly, given their Grade B strength, not to mention defusing this mind trap, they would not even be able to notice it at all. They should have been in the dark all along… However, the Soul Swapper had the function to check the state of a soul.
All Space Wonder level treasures had a certain ‘absolute’ aspect. Not to mention a mind trap set by an ordinary Beyond Grade A, even if it was set by a peak Beyond Grade A, as long as it was targeted at the soul, the Soul Swapper would discover it. This was similar to the Spacetime Amber’s ‘absolute’ aspect; as long as its fundamental mechanism was not figured out, even ten peak Beyond Grade As attacking it together would not damage it in the slightest.
It would be a wild dream for the two of them to defuse a mind trap set up by a Beyond Grade A, but including a Space Wonder in that equation would make things different. Even though the two of them could not use the Soul Swapper to its fullest potential, they still had an emergency method to deal with this problem.
The Soul Swapper did not have the ability to ‘purify souls’, but the two of them planned to gather mind energy far beyond their own power by absorbing a large number of souls and slowly chipping away at the trap in their minds.
This plan would require a lot of souls, which meant they had to kill a lot of people. But clearly, they had no choice, nor did they care.
“Elder bro, what’s our plan?”
“Let’s go to some place where no one recognizes us, take over a body with high potential, and slowly grow stronger. When we’re at Calamity Grade or even Beyond Grade A, we will be able to go anywhere we want in this universe!”
Jill knew that ‘keeping a low profile and cultivating’ was the right path. Flames of ambition sparkled in his eyes.
In his heart, becoming the only ones who could use the Soul Swapper was both lucky and tragic.
The lucky part, of course, was that the Soul Swapper only recognized the two of them as users, as if they were chosen.
The tragic part was that, because of that, they were imprisoned by the Modo Civilization for many years, they became the subjects of countless inhumane experiments, and their personalities became twisted.
However, the tragic dark days were in the past now. The future was full of hope, and the Soul Swapper had brought them infinite possibilities… From now on, they were free!
In Floating Dragon Island, water vapor filled the magnificent palace. Deep inside the layers of fog, there was the sound of water flowing.
Hu!
The thick fog was suddenly disturbed, and a tall silhouette suddenly appeared beside the wardrobe shelf in the palace. The King mechanical suit automatically fell off and disappeared, leaving Han Xiao standing there.
e
The sound of water in the room paused for a split second, and a force field shockwave fused with water vapor suddenly rocketed toward him. Han Xiao stood still and let it land on his chest, creating a loud noise, but his body did not move at all.
“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 the 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 c
aptain 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.