Chapter 286 Interstellar Journey: Mercenary Planet

In the vast universe, a warship, undetectable by the naked eye and radar, is traveling at an extremely high speed.

Inside the warship, Lu Xuan, having removed his bio-mask and reverted to his original appearance, sat relaxed on the sofa with his legs crossed, casually browsing news related to the spaceship hijacking incident that had already gone viral on his personal computer.

Among them were reports that he was also on the boat and even rescued people.

While watching the drama unfold, viewers in the live stream couldn't help but ask:

Why did the streamer run away?

[Exactly! The streamer saved someone; there's bound to be a reward from above.]

[Does the streamer really need that little bit of reward?]

[It would be great if you stayed and came to the capital planet with the higher-ups. I've been eagerly hoping to see the streamer in person for years.]

Lu Xuanxin thought to himself that he wanted to leave first because he didn't want to be caught by his superiors.

If he wanted to contact the Star Alliance officials, he would have teleported directly to the capital planet or another political planet from the start. Why bother going through the trouble of finding an inconspicuous transit station?

Some of his longtime fans in the live stream were able to guess his thoughts. Instead of joining the others in making a fuss, they tried to find out his next destination.

Lu Xuan smiled and said, "Guess?"

The destination, of course, cannot be told to them in advance.

If we tell you the truth, who knows how many more spaceships will follow? What difference would it make from the capital planet?

[We've already visited Sorenson's Natural Planet, so we can skip it. The streamer didn't teleport to the capital planet this time either, so we can also remove that option.]

[Hey streamer, come to Rainbow Star! The scenery is absolutely amazing! There are lots of tourists, but the planet is huge, so don't worry about it being too crowded.]

[I think the streamer might go to an agricultural planet. After all, most of the agricultural planets in the Star Alliance are currently growing mutated seeds obtained from the streamer. Doesn't the streamer want to go and 'inspect' them?]

Many other people mentioned the names of more than a dozen planets, most of which were among the top-ranked planets in the previous fan-initiated poll.

Some clever people thought of the flight path of the spaceship the streamer had recently taken and deduced where he was going based on the route.

But this is not an easy task.

The spaceship Lu Xuan was on stopped at three habitable planets and two mining planets along the way. It also passed through two transit stations, which had multiple routes to different star systems.

If all these places are included, Lu Xuan could have visited at least twenty or thirty planets; it's impossible to guess.

Of course, it wasn't that no one actually guessed the location correctly.

But as long as Lu Xuan doesn't say anything, those who guessed correctly won't even know they've guessed it.

Fans kept nagging and pleading with Lu Xuan, but he remained unmoved, even avoiding the fans in the live stream when he initially set the autopilot mode to determine the destination.

After that, every day was spent either playing games in the holographic world, eating delicious food made by robots, browsing StarBlog, and watching interdimensional live streams.

In addition, the daily discounts will be refreshed every day, allowing you to buy blind boxes.

It's not that there's anything missing, it's just that these are the only two ways to obtain the gene evolution fluid.

Gene Evolution Fluid is a truly valuable item in the Star Alliance; it will always come in handy sometime, and you shouldn't miss the opportunity to obtain it.

However, when talking about this, we have to mention the changes to the live streaming system after this teleportation.

The last time he received a one-time teleportation ticket, the entire system shop was grayed out and unavailable for purchase. But this time, probably because he had already obtained Star Alliance citizenship and was not purchasing a short-term teleportation ticket, both the system shop and the streamer shop were working normally.

The only difference is that the price has changed significantly.

Lu Xuan compared the prices of goods in the Star Alliance online store and found that the prices in the system store were mostly close to the actual prices in the Star Alliance, with discounts of up to 20% or 30%.

It's much more expensive than the previous price difference of five or ten times.

Prices in the livestreamer's online store have also increased two to three times.

According to viewers, if he were to return to an ancient dimension one day, the price would return to its original level.

To put it simply, it's a way to prevent cross-dimensional streamers from taking advantage of price differences to buy and sell goods and make huge profits.

Lu Xuan didn't care about this.

He never intended to become a middleman.

The supplies I bought in advance were just because I thought it would cost more to buy them here. It's the same principle as in modern society where people buy some local, inexpensive, and high-quality goods in advance before going out to avoid wasting money when they arrive in another place.

Lu Xuan really wanted to make money. The gifts from his live stream were still quite substantial, and he had countless natural foods in his hands. Wouldn't each of these easily bring in tens of millions of yuan?

Even though the discounts and blind box prices are higher than before, Lu Xuan's daily expenses are far less than his gift income. Not only has his wealth not decreased, but he has also gained several more bottles of evolution fluid.

Thus, half a month passed in the blink of an eye as Lu Xuan streamed, enjoyed the food, and browsed the StarNet.

After two jumps, passing through multiple mining planets and habitable planets, and even brushing past several public ships and pirate ships, the warship finally arrived at its destination.

With their curiosity fully piqued, billions of viewers in the live stream stared wide-eyed at the planet ahead where numerous spaceships were coming and going.

Most people didn't recognize which planet this was at first, but some who were familiar with the characteristics of different planets, or who were originally residents of this planet, recognized the place almost immediately.

—Mercenary Star!

-

Two hours later, in an inconspicuous hotel on Mercenary Star.

Lu Xuan leaned back on the sofa and turned on the live stream he had turned off before entering the planet.

As expected, as soon as the live stream restarted, countless comments flooded in.

Why did the streamer shut down the broadcast at such a crucial moment again?!

[Wow! It turns out the streamer's destination was Mercenary Star!]

[I should have known! Compared to tourist planets or restrictive capital planets, the streamer clearly prefers a freer and more exciting planet. Is there anything freer and more exciting than a mercenary planet?]

I heard it's quite chaotic over there. Besides mercenaries, there are also a lot of space pirates. People without real strength might die silently at any time. I don't dare to go chasing stars.

[Have we arrived at the hotel already? It looks quite ordinary; the curtains are drawn, so we can't see outside and can't tell its exact location at all. Tsk, the streamer is being too cautious.]

[Host, host, I'm currently on Mercenary Planet. Which district's hotel are you staying at? I can be your tour guide and show you around Mercenary Planet!]

Sitting on the sofa, Lu Xuan held a glass of Ziliang wine in his hand and swirled it around. "I'd rather not have a tour guide. I prefer to explore on my own."

[Shouldn't the streamer register when staying at a hotel? Checking the hotel's guest list for today should tell us where the streamer is, right?]

Lu Xuan smiled dismissively after seeing the comment.

Before he could say anything more, the mercenaries hidden in the live stream and other viewers familiar with the rules of Mercenary Star began to explain.

[Impossible. Mercenary Star is a gray area, full of people using fake identities. The streamer couldn't possibly be unaware of this.]

Although Mercenary Star still belongs to the Covenant, its geographical location is far from other habitable planets, and it is even on the edge of the Covenant. There are many unstable asteroid belts around it, and due to its special nature, the Covenant authorities have basically no say in it.

The mercenary stars are managed by several top-tier S-class mercenary groups.

Because the official forces cannot intervene, in addition to mercenaries, there are also many space pirates, outlaws, and even wanted criminals roaming around here.

To make it easier to move around, people with such shady identities often seek out fake identities.

Although Lu Xuan was not a desperate criminal, he was still 'shady' and would definitely try to cover himself up.

Even without using a fake identity, one could easily hypnotize hotel staff with hypnotic abilities and check in without registering. Trying to find someone through a check-in certificate is unrealistic.

However, viewers weren't really just waiting in the live stream room the whole time while Lu Xuan was offline.

News of Lu Xuan's arrival on Mercenary Star has spread across the Star Network. Countless people, both official and civilian, are about to depart for Mercenary Star or have already departed.

However, unexpectedly, the influx of foreigners to Mercenary Star will surge in the coming period.

Lu Xuan wasn't worried about being ambushed.

Mercenary Star is in a special location; even the nearest inhabited planet takes six or seven days to reach.

Even if he did arrive, he might not be able to find him; he would have plenty of time to relax and explore the new world.

"To avoid trouble, my live streaming schedule may not be fixed recently. You can go about your own business if you don't have anything to do, and you don't need to keep watching the live stream."

As he spoke, Lu Xuan finished his wine, casually put the glass aside, stood up and said, "I'm going out for a stroll to learn about the local customs and culture of Mercenary Star. I'll end the broadcast now."

Before the viewers in the live stream could protest, Lu Xuan quickly shut down the live stream, changed into a different biological mask than during the live stream, and left the hotel.

Before leaving, he even hypnotized the hotel owner to prevent him from recognizing his hotel and revealing his whereabouts.

-

At the same time, in addition to the commotion on the StarNet over Lu Xuan's whereabouts, many people within Mercenary Star also received the news.

Each mercenary group excitedly began searching in their familiar areas, while powerful A-level mercenary groups contacted other B-level mercenary groups of the same level or some of the top ones to inquire whether they had any unknown information.

“Lu Xuan was very cautious. He turned off the live stream before landing, so no one knows exactly which direction he landed from.”

"We also sent people to check at the airport, but we didn't find any spaceships that resembled the warship Lu Xuan was on."

“Lu Xuan has super-large space equipment, which can easily store the warship. Besides, even if we do find the warship, so what? The people aren't on it. Are we supposed to seize his ship?”

"At least if he were to leave, we could know in advance and intercept him."

"Are you kidding me? Intercepting an eighth-level ability user? You're asking for death like this."

"Then what do you suggest we do? There are at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, hotel decorations similar to those shown in the live stream. Besides, no one can guarantee that he won't change locations again tomorrow. There's simply no time to verify them one by one."

The leaders or high-ranking members of several large mercenary groups discussed the matter back and forth but failed to come up with an effective solution, looking both anxious and frustrated.

Some of them coveted the large amount of natural food Lu Xuan possessed and wanted to trade with him; others wanted the evolution fluid he had for their subordinates or relatives, or to obtain some high-level crystal cores for their own breakthrough.

Some of the bolder ones even try to recruit people into their own groups.

Nowadays, most of the leaders of A-level mercenary groups on Mercenary Star are level six or seven ability users, and it is not easy for A-level to advance to S-level.

Many A-rank mercenary groups may have been stuck at A-rank for decades, unable to advance further.

An S-class mercenary group represents more than just a rank upgrade; it grants them certain management authority over mercenary stars, ensuring their livelihood for the rest of their lives. It can be considered a true elevation in social class.

If they can win Lu Xuan over, maybe they can make a run for S-rank!

Therefore, some who were willing to go all out were even prepared to give up their positions as regimental commanders.

Some were thinking of making Lu Xuan the deputy commander, while others wanted to achieve cooperation through marriage.

A very few greedy individuals set their sights on Lu Xuan's entire fortune.

Having grown accustomed to being in control, some people simply cannot accept having someone more powerful than themselves above them, suppressing them.

Rather than bringing back an ancestor who would usurp my authority, I should just find a way to acquire Lu Xuan's wealth. Even without control of the mercenary star, I'll still live a carefree life.

Regardless of whether these people's ideas are unrealistic or fanciful, the prerequisite is to find Lu Xuan first.

Someone couldn't help but suggest, "Why don't we seal off the mercenary planet for a while, and then mobilize everyone to search together?"

The others rolled their eyes and said, "Can you use your brain before you speak? There's more than just Lu Xuan on Mercenary Star that you can't easily offend. We're not the bosses of Mercenary Star either. If we blockade the entire planet, we'll probably offend everyone else before we find Lu Xuan."

While mercenaries are more disciplined than space pirates, they are not by much. Many people live here because Mercenary Planet offers a great deal of freedom.

If you open your mouth and say you want to seal off a planet, it might cause a riot among most of the population, and some space pirates and outlaws might even suspect that you've teamed up with the authorities to scam people.

"Besides, we want to get some benefits from Lu Xuan, not offend him to death. If we really piss him off, do we have enough people here for him to kill?"

The other group leaders who were also somewhat interested instantly calmed down as if someone had poured a bucket of cold water on them.

A moment later, someone asked, "Is there any movement up there?"

This refers to the five S-class mercenary groups currently managing Mercenary Star.

"The main force of Thor and Liuguang took on an S-class mission a few months ago and haven't returned yet. We don't know if they've received any news yet."

"The Illusionary Dream Mercenary Group has been focused on developing its businesses on Mercenary Star for years and hasn't been taking on many missions. They probably aren't very interested in recruiting Lu Xuan. But Lu Xuan has a lot of good stuff, so it's hard to say he won't want to trade with him. If Illusionary Dream finds someone first, we probably won't even get a taste of the soup."

"As for Yaoye and Chenxing, the two groups are always elusive, and we don't know their situation yet."

To be honest, if an S-class mercenary group is also interested in Lu Xuan, even if A-class and top-tier B-class groups find him, they probably can't offer better terms than an S-class mercenary group.

But I wouldn't be satisfied without trying it myself.

Unless the S-class mercenary group makes a clear statement, they will assume that the S-class group is not interested in Lu Xuan and they will go after their own group first.

It took a long discussion before someone suggested a useful method for figuring out how to find it.

"Didn't Lu Xuan say he wanted to explore Mercenary Star? Let's send people to stake out the more famous places on Mercenary Star beforehand, observing unfamiliar faces or anyone who looks suspicious. I don't believe we can't find his whereabouts!"

The others' eyes lit up. "Great idea!"

"The black markets, arenas, auction houses, and mercenary halls in each district all need to be closely monitored."

"If anyone gets the news, remember to let everyone know. We can all benefit from it together."

"That's right, that's right."

Everyone nodded in agreement, but in their hearts they were all thinking the same thing: they'd be too busy keeping the benefits to themselves to tell you guys.

Besides the dozens of mercenary groups that participated in this discussion, other teams on Mercenary Star may have thought of ways to ambush Lu Xuan, and they all put them into action immediately.

The already bustling Mercenary Star became even more lively and restless with the appearance of such an important figure as Lu Xuan.

The Mercenary Hall has seen a surge in missions seeking out Lu Xuan, or directly inviting or requesting trade with him.

Lu Xuan was not entirely unaware of this; in fact, the first place he went to was the Mercenary Hall.

He ignored all content related to him and simply registered as a personal mercenary.

After registering and returning to the hotel, Lu Xuan started a live stream to tell his viewers about registering as a mercenary.

Before long, the mercenary hall was packed with people, with countless people going over to inquire whether anyone had seen Lu Xuan or asking the staff.

As for directly viewing the information of newly registered mercenaries, only S-rank mercenary groups have this authority; others can only watch helplessly.

Left with no other option, the A-level mercenary groups could only try to find the base of the S-level mercenary groups and ask if they could find information on the latest registered mercenaries.

In fact, even if they hadn't gone, several S-class mercenary groups would have acted much faster.

Even though Thor and Liuguang were the main force going out on missions, there were still members left behind on Mercenary Star. How could they not pay attention to the arrival of an eighth-level ability user?

However, the investigation yielded nothing.

Lu Xuan wasn't stupid; how could he not know that if it were registered and exposed on the same day, an investigation would be spot on?

The mercenary hall has both real and robot staff, and he specifically chose the real staff. During registration, he hypnotized the staff to change his registration information to that of several months ago.

Mercenary Star has at least 8,000 to 10,000 people registering or deregistering their information every day, resulting in a significant population turnover.

If we extend the timeline by several months, the number of people involved is so large that it's impossible to know almost everything in a short period of time.

By the time they actually find out, the person will have already disappeared. Even if they find out, it's useless. He can simply change his identity and register again, and let them check again.

Matryoshka dolls, endlessly nested, can drive a person crazy with exhaustion.

Finding that this method wouldn't work, the group had no choice but to continue staking out other locations and searching for the person using their own methods.

Some people are worried that Lu Xuan has become a mercenary and can now take on missions, so he might just accept a mission and run away, or be planning to run away.

Saying he'll be wandering around the mercenary planet might be a way to lull them into a false sense of security; maybe he'll have already left the mercenary planet by the time the show resumes.

Therefore, there are people at the airport monitoring the area at all times to see if any unfamiliar spaceships leave.

If there is anything suspicious, even if we can't seize the spaceship, it's essential to track it down and confirm its identity.

Others took screenshots of the bio-mask Lu Xuan had used in his previous live streams, trying to find some clues from the surveillance cameras on Mercenary Star.

Only S-class mercenary groups have access to the planet's public surveillance system, but other mercenary groups also have considerable businesses on the mercenary planet.

It's perfectly normal to install cameras around your own property, and there's nothing wrong with checking your own surveillance footage, right?

Although the radiation range is not wide enough, each mercenary group has planted spies among themselves. If they don't find it in their own area, they might find it in someone else's.

If you include your house, my house, and his house, you can search a very large area.

However, this method also failed to produce results.

Because Lu Xuan had far too many bio-masks in stock.

Blind boxes of Silver rank and above can be drawn from time to time. Apart from using a small portion when doing business in the ancient plane, the number of masks drawn over five years is so many that Lu Xuan could not use them all even if he used one a day for the rest of his life.

Moreover, bio-masks are not disposable items.

A single mask can conceal many different faces; relying on facial recognition was never an option from the start.

Since all the mercenary groups were completely futile, Lu Xuan's movements were not restricted at all, and he leisurely visited all the well-known places on the mercenary planet that the A-level mercenary groups had mentioned when they made their private contact.

For example, you can buy many contraband items that are officially prohibited from sale by the Covenant on the black market.

Various powerful weapons, medicines, and even counterfeit gene evolution fluids with unknown side effects are several times more expensive than the originals, yet they are quite popular.

When Lu Xuan discovered it, the stock had already been snapped up, and many people were chasing after the sellers asking when the next batch of goods would be available.

Lu Xuan overheard the conversations of the mercenaries around him and discovered that the counterfeit gene evolution fluid would leave lifelong side effects.

Headaches, body aches, hallucinations, blood clotting disorders, skin ulcers, immune system collapse, etc.

Even so, it still attracted a huge following, allowing Lu Xuan to truly witness for the first time how much people in the interstellar world were willing to pay to gain superpowers.

She realized even more how much others envied her for having the right to purchase thousands of evolution fluids.

But that's just his good fortune; you can't be envious of that.

Afterwards, Lu Xuan remarked to the viewers in the live stream, "You guys are really risking your lives to gain superpowers."

Audience: Now you know how much of a loss we made by carelessly selling the evolution fluid to the ancients! We should have had so much evolution fluid!

Lu Xuan did not have such thoughts.

No amount of Star Coins could grant him more than a dozen special abilities.

Besides prohibited items, there are also many rare products on the StarNet Mall, among which natural foods are the most prominent.

Various mutated rice and noodles, as well as fruits, vegetables, and mutated animal meat.

It is known that the mutated beast meat native to the Star Alliance is inedible. If it can be sold as food, at least a large portion of it must have come from Lu Xuan.

The rest is meat that streamers from other dimensions recycle and send to the system store. This may not all be mutated beast meat; there may also be ordinary beast meat.

The amount appearing on the black market is not large, mostly in kilograms, with each kilogram costing tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of star coins.

Other food items generally cost several thousand to tens of thousands of yuan.

In the past two years, with the increase in crop yields and the price of natural food having dropped to seven or eight hundred Star Coins, the price has become much inflated.

However, natural foods are still a rare commodity. They can't be bought on the StarNet Mall, but at least Mercenary Star can get their hands on them. Since they are rare, it's not a big deal to sell them at a higher price.

Just like the counterfeit evolution fluid, natural foods are also in high demand and sell out instantly whenever they appear.

Lu Xuan also learned from other people that there was a 'dark market' in the black market.

The so-called dark market is not a place to sell things, but rather a place similar to a mercenary hall where you can accept missions, mostly involving kidnapping, robbery, and assassination.

Mercenaries and assassins, outlaws, are not the same thing after all.

These types of missions are hated and easily subject to retaliation. If a mercenary group does too many kidnapping and assassination missions, other employers will inevitably worry about their safety, which is not conducive to the mercenary group taking on other jobs. That's why a separate 'dark market' has emerged.

The prices for missions in the dark market are generally higher than those for mercenary missions, but the mortality rate is also not low.

There are mercenaries who accept missions, but there are more space pirates.

Lu Xuan took a stroll through the dark market to broaden his knowledge before leaving.

The entire Mercenary Star has ten districts, each with its own black market, and the types of goods sold in each black market vary to some extent.

Lu Xuan spent two days visiting each one.

I only started the live stream after I finished shopping to share what I had learned over the past two days with my viewers.

The mercenaries, who were hiding in the live stream room waiting for the latest news, were extremely excited after hearing this.

Especially the mercenaries who had been staking out the black market but hadn't noticed anything unusual: they'd been waiting in vain!

On the bright side, at least they no longer need to camp out in the black market, which eliminates one potential location.

-

Later, Lu Xuan went to casinos, racetracks, auction houses, colosseums, gladiatorial arenas, and other places.

The first two places are relatively ordinary and exist in modern times. There's nothing particularly special about them. At most, people from Mercenary Star might lose a bet or a race and get so angry that they'd start fighting on the spot, possibly even killing each other.

But it's no exaggeration to say that on the Mercenary Star, you'll often encounter people with personal grudges fighting and killing each other on the street, so it's not surprising at all.

In particular, no one from the mercenary stars would intervene in these personal feuds.

At most, you'll have to pay compensation if you damage someone else's territory in a fight. If the person whose property was damaged is weaker than you, you might not even need to pay compensation.

After the fight ends and someone dies, there will be people specifically assigned to collect the body.

If they didn't kill him, let his own companions pick him up.

For the Covenant citizens living on habitable planets with good public security, this place is chaotic and disorderly.

But this disorder is just right for mercenaries.

People with strength, or those who have a certain ability to protect themselves, will find it very comfortable to live there.

No need to swallow your anger, no need to be restrained, entertainment venues offer a wide variety of options, live life to the fullest.

...

Auction houses are more interesting than black markets, and they offer a wider variety of goods.

Although Lu Xuan didn't have anything he particularly liked, he casually gave away quite a few items to the auction house.

As soon as the news spread, countless mercenary groups flocked to the auction house, searching for Lu Xuan while also vying for the goods he had brought out, keeping them extremely busy.

The most noteworthy are the Colosseum and the Gladiator Arena.

The former, as the name suggests, mainly consists of battles between mutated beasts. Occasionally, there will be battles between mutated beasts and humans. Most of the humans are prisoners captured and thrown over by certain vendetta mercenary groups. Unless they are rescued by a more powerful person, they can only be freed by fighting to the death with mutated beasts in the arena.

Overall, it's quite bloody and brutal.

The arena is more free; whether it's mech battles or superhuman battles, it's all free combat.

The arena has its own star fighters, but mercenaries from Mercenary Star or anyone else who believes they have enough skill can sign up for battle. Depending on the level of the battle, winning a match will earn a substantial reward.

In addition, each battle will also have off-site betting, where the audience can participate to win a little or a lot of money.

Star fighters trained in the arena can freely leave the arena as long as they pay the Star Coins spent on training them.

However, star fighters in the arena receive high appearance fees and commissions, and have a great deal of autonomy over the number of appearances they can make. Generally, unless their skills decline or they suffer from health problems, they will not leave the arena.

Lu Xuan was quite interested in the battles in the arena, and without much thought, he casually signed up for today's match.

-----------------------

Author's Note: Reader "Jenny Mash" watered the page with +2 nutrient solution on 2025-08-19 16:37:49

Reader "Yan" irrigated with nutrient solution +20 on 2025-08-13 at 12:09:24