Chapter 29: Aftermath is Fierce than a Tiger
The mine disaster was over. The Star Spirit Mine seemed to sense the danger and slowly retracted the huge tree trunk. Xifeng, who was ambushing in the distance, also joined all the members of the rescue team.
Looking at the Star Spirit Mine slowly shrinking its body (?), Longyun sighed softly.
"This guy's lifespan has been shortened by at least a year."
Beichen was surprised for a few seconds after hearing this, and then he figured it out: Indeed... This form of massive expansion of volume would probably consume a huge amount of energy.
She looked at the huge tree trunks that were slowly shrinking with some sadness.
"In order to protect this batch of warships, we lost the opportunity to produce seventeen batches of warships."
Xifeng made this comment mercilessly, not being moved at all by the parental love of Xingling Mine.
Although what he said was rationally correct and people couldn't even utter a word of rebuttal, for some reason Beichen still found this statement unpleasant.
She had noticed something since they met. It seemed like she and Xifeng didn't get along. Not only her, but Xifeng also seemed to dislike her and they seldom made eye contact.
But she had no time to take care of these trivial matters. The battle was over, but there were too many remaining problems.
Because of the anger of the Protoss Mine and the attack of the humanoid Moon Messenger, when Beichen and his party arrived, there was not a single soldier from the Protoss Mine Supervisory Department here - probably they escaped. When Darim escaped and the new Governor of the Protoss Mine was not yet elected, the garrisons in remote areas seemed to be in chaos.
Fortunately, under the protection of the Star Spirit Mine, the new fighter can survive starvation for a little longer than Beichen imagined - half a month, so although it is very weak now, it should not be in any danger of life.
One of the uninjured Holy Spirit Warriors in the rescue team left the team and went to the town of Wilvis to report the news, because no one here had the means to transport hundreds of new weapons (weapons are living things and cannot be placed in storage space); while the others found a clean open space and began to reorganize.
Those who were poisoned by the moon began to drink the blood of their own weapons to detoxify. Those who still had strength began to recover the star cores in the bodies of the possessed moon messengers. Some were setting fire to the bodies of the possessed moon messengers, and the smell of burning filled the air nearby.
The atmosphere had subtly changed from when we first formed the team.
Those Lingwusi were all elites under Rui's command. Although the focus of their mission this time was to quell the mine disaster and rescue the victims, Rui repeatedly told them to take care of and protect Beichen during their trip. Their military nature made them obey this unconditionally, but a little dissatisfaction grew in their hearts.
This cannot be blamed on them. As soldiers, being assigned combat missions and also being asked to protect female family members is indeed a headache and annoyance.
That’s right, at the beginning, Beichen was indeed regarded by them as Rui’s most important beloved one - after all, so many elites put protecting her as the highest priority, and even his wife had never enjoyed such treatment.
Of course, they would not blame Rui as the master who cultivated them, so they transferred their dissatisfaction to the protected Beichen.
Therefore, at the beginning, everyone's attitude towards her was extremely polite and formal, and they tried to avoid talking to her unless necessary. Beichen also noticed their thoughts to some extent, but she was too lazy to explain anything. Whether she was a weak woman who needed protection from others, she would prove it with her strength when the time came.
In fact, she did.
Now, although the attitude of these Lingwusi towards her could not be said to be very friendly, it was no longer all formulaic honorifics. At least she could judge a person's character from the tone of his voice.
Feeling that he had narrowed the distance between himself and Rui's subordinates, Beichen was secretly happy in his heart that he had been recognized by others.
Of course, putting all these aside, the most important thing is to reminisce with Gu Yinyue and his party.
"I didn't expect to see you again in less than a month. A touching goodbye hug, wouldn't you?"
Longyun ignored the glares from Xiangying and Gemini Hook Claws, smiled at her and opened his arms - because he had just lost 500 grams (or perhaps more) of blood, his face looked a little weak.
Under normal circumstances, facing Longyun's teasing, Beichen would definitely step back with a red face, but in this situation, she inexplicably... didn't want to refuse such a request.
——It’s really great that they are safe and sound.
Thinking of this, Beichen walked over and hugged Longyun gently and politely. The latter obviously didn't expect that she would really agree to his request. Instead, she remained in a daze with her arms open.
While Longyun was still in a daze, Beichen left his arms and walked up to Gu Yinyue, looking at his arms with rolled-up sleeves - although they had been almost healed with the large recovery crystal, they still seemed a little red and swollen.
Beichen rubbed her hands a little embarrassedly, and her servile look made Heihuo and Sujie on the side look at her with contempt.
"Uh, you won't hit me, will you, Mr. Gu Yinyue?"
“……?”
Gu Yinyue looked at Beichen a little confused.
"That is, I want a 'touching goodbye hug' or something like that... You won't beat me up, will you?"
After all, I am a woman, and he is an ascetic, so it is hard to say whether he will accept such intimate interaction. Thinking of the gossip that he once broke the bones of the person who seduced him, it is safer to confirm it in advance.
“…”
Gu Yinyue was stunned for a moment, and then this old ascetic monk actually maintained a cold expression on his face -
I'm blushing! ?
A huge black line slid down Beichen's head: "Uh... forget it, pfft--!!!"
Before she could finish her words, she was pressed into Gu Yinyue's arms, and her nose hit the light armor on his chest. She was in so much pain that she saw stars, but before she could say anything, Gu Yinyue was released from his arms.
Then the old man, with red ears, found a big rock and sat down in a different direction, ignoring Beichen, which made Beichen cover his nose and feel embarrassed, not knowing what to do.
Are you a young woman who has just begun to fall in love?! ——Hei Huo and Su Jie twitched their lips and complained in their minds behind Bei Chen.
"But Longyun, you guys have been in there for so many days, and you didn't starve to death."
Naraka came over with several star cores in his hands, and threw the largest one to Beichen - probably the one from the Disaster King she killed.
"Starved to death? How is that possible? My storage space is filled with a year's worth of food. You must have forgotten how terrifying the survival ability of a dead monk is in the wild."
"That's right." Naraka seemed to have remembered something terrible and laughed dryly.
"As for me, although my Star Spirit Energy reserves can't compare to monsters like Xiaxue, it's still pretty good compared to other monsters of the same kind. It's certainly enough for a few days."
Rather than speaking to Naraka, Longyun's words sounded more like an explanation to Beichen and the others.
"What is the storage capacity of star power...?"
Beichen seized the opportunity to ask a question.
"...Hmm, if we convert it to a human, it's roughly the size of a stomach, right?"
"Well……?"
"The bigger the stomach, the more food it can hold, and the longer you can resist hunger," Longyun said, looking at Xiangying, "Brother Xiangying, how much star power do you have stored?"
"About two months."
"──Eh?! Does that mean Xiangying, you can go two months without consuming star power?!"
"Yes."
"Then what about Black Disaster and Su Jie?"
"Not long, a week."
No wonder they were starved and turned back to their original form when they met Rui. It turned out that it was because their storage capacity was not large.
Longyun nodded:
"Well, mine is about two weeks, and Naraka is about the same."
After hearing this, Beichen smiled and patted Xiangying's shoulder: "It seems that Xiangying is the strongest in terms of the amount of star spirit power stored?"
Xiang Ying smiled wryly at his master, "That's why your advancement is slow. If you don't fill up your Star Spirit Energy storage area, you can't convert that Star Spirit Energy into the power you need to advance. In other words, you can only advance after you're full, and my stomach is particularly large, so my advancement is even slower. So generally speaking, weapons with good aptitude don't have a very high Star Spirit Energy storage capacity, so they need to replenish their food more frequently."
"Not necessarily. The Star Vein Seeds have a very large storage capacity of stellar spiritual energy." Naraka interjected, "Hey, Xifeng, how much is your storage capacity?"
Xifeng, who was resting with his eyes closed not far away, frowned and opened his eyes.
"Forty years."
"Pfft?!" Beichen choked on his breath. "This is way too different from two months and one week or something like that!? By the way, Xifeng, how old are you?!"
"326. What's wrong?"
“…No, nothing.”
This...this stomach is probably bigger than an aircraft carrier, right?!
"So," Naraka shrugged, "that's why the vein species are so completely indifferent to humans. As long as they find a good partner and conserve their celestial energy, they can be free for decades. ――So, in contrast, it's quite difficult for the vein species to level up."
"I see……"
Beichen nodded in sudden realization, and then felt a little happy.
There was something delightfully satisfying in learning every detail about a race so new and so endearing to her.
"But before we talk about boring things like stomach size," Naraka said, pointing to the twin claws beside Beichen, "shouldn't you formally introduce them to each other?"
That’s right──Gu Yinyue and his group didn’t know Heihuo and Sujie.
Hearing Naraka say this, Gu Yinyue on the side also turned his head - finally he stopped blushing.
"Ahem, they are my newly signed weapons..."
"Hooked Claw, Black Disaster, Five Strings, Yeyue Seed. A laborer who is bullied by the Beichen Master every day."
Heihuo said this with an evil smile while hooking his arms around Beichen's neck.
Beichen's hair stood on end: "Who is bullying whom every day?! And don't call me Master Beichen! It's so scary—it's so scary coming from you!"
"Hooked Claw, Su Jie, Five Strings, Ye Yue Zhong. My queen loves me very much and lets me warm her bed every day."
Su Jie came over and put his hand on Beichen's head.
"Stop calling me Queen!! And how can we afford such luxuries as running around in the wild and getting a blanket since we met? Uuuuuuuu—"
"Long Sword, Towards Shadow..."
"Ah, Xiangying, forget it. We know you."
“…”
Naraka sneered at the two of them:
"Hey, two hands tied. I haven't seen you for a month and you already have two new followers, and they're of this type. Woman, you have an interesting eye..."
"Yes, Xiaochen, it seems that you are not unable to accept weapons other than Brother Xiangying. Someone in Wilvis Town is about to cry." Longyun spread his hands with a forced smile, "Anyway, Xiaohei and Xiaobai, please take care of us. Our masters may very well become partners in the future."
"You are the novice, your whole family is novice!"
Black Disaster didn't react much to the childish nickname, but Su Jie protested with veins all over his face.
"No, Little Loach, what did that giant sword call you? 'Xiao Chen'?!"
Then, as if she suddenly remembered something, Heihuo glared at Beichen with dissatisfaction, and she was so scared that she immediately ran behind Xiang Ying.
"Why can he call you so affectionately? He's obviously not your weapon. You don't want to sign with him, do you? He's so big and heavy. If you use him, you'll turn into a muscled woman like a gorilla."
Su Jie also interrupted dissatisfiedly.
"Brother, we are really at a disadvantage. How about we change our names?"
"Yeah, but what should we change? Do you have any good ideas, stupid Ying?"
"As for the name... well, I don't understand why you call the master "little loach", even though it seems like a nickname... but since you're going to change it, it would be better to combine it with "master"?"
"...Loach Man?"
"Wait, you guys should just call me Little Loach! No, I am Little Loach. Please just call me Little Loach!"
“…”
“…”
“…”
Gu Yinyue and his two followers looked at Beichen with twitching lips, and suddenly a deep sympathy surged in their hearts.
"I said, I don't care what you want to reminisce about, but..."
Xifeng suddenly spoke out of the blue.
"...How long do you want to avoid showing off? Xiang Beichen?"
As he spoke, he pointed at the human-shaped Moon Envoy standing behind Beichen... the one who was out of tune with all the creatures around him...
“…Wow.”
Having been stabbed in the sore spot, Beichen could only laugh dryly and slowly turned his head to look at the creature named Atlas, which was supposed to be their natural enemy (?).
Without Beichen's order, he seemed to just stand there motionless, still expressionless, but with his tail hanging vertically, looking a little listless.
——But, as soon as it made eye contact with Beichen, the long tail immediately began to swing wildly with a "pat, pat, pat" sound! Beichen was so scared that he immediately turned his head away, and then he saw from the corner of his eye that the tail was hanging down again.
The scariest thing is that from beginning to end, that guy kept a paralyzed face ahhhh!
Beichen suddenly had a strong illusion of abusing small animals.
So she could only endure the strong pity and mocking gazes of the crowd and walked reluctantly to Atlas.
Atlas' tail lifted up a little happily, and then he stretched out his hand. Beichen immediately jumped back a few steps in surprise - the chest-grabbing action just now seemed to have caused a life-threatening shock to her.
So the tail immediately hung down in grievance.
"I...I can come over here, but you are not allowed to touch me!"
"Yes, Saint."
"Call me Beichen!"
"Yes, beautiful Beichen."
"Just call me Beichen..."
Beichen is exhausted.
"Yes, Beichen."
Atlas did not attack again, but instead stretched out its tail and wrapped around Beichen's hand.
“…”
Beichen held his forehead and looked at Xifeng:
"So, what should we do?"
"Bringing him into town like this will probably cause a riot. We need to fix the appearance issue first, or do you want to leave him in the wild and let him roam free?"
"...That's definitely not possible. What if he leads his minions to attack the Star Spirit Mine again..."
Beichen sighed. It looked like she'd be getting another long-term (?) companion. At least she'd have to keep him with her until she figured out a proper solution. But after all, the ferocious and violent image of the possessed Moon Envoy was too deeply etched in her mind. Even the docile (?) humanoid figure before her still left a tinge of fear in her heart.
No one knows what this guy will become on the night of the star disaster.
The tail wrapped around his hand tightened, and it was unclear whether he was afraid that Beichen would lose him, or asking Beichen what to do.
"Anyway, Atlas, do you have any way to change your appearance? Like disguise yourself as a human or something?"
"Okay. Let's begin the photon disguise."
Atlas released his tail and walked to the opposite side of Beichen. Then, a burst of photons flashed around him, and the humanoid wings and the creature's shell in front of him disappeared. However—
"Why did you become a Beatle?! Can't you just dress normally?!"
Atlas was stunned for a few seconds, and the photons flashed again!
"Even stage costumes are out of the question! Who would walk down the street wearing a shiny, sequined leather jacket?"
Snap, snap!
"Forget about the cowboy outfit, why does he have a big feather on his head..."
Snap, snap!
"No! This is absolutely not allowed! Even if people in this world don't know who Ben Deng is, you can't show this face in front of me!"
Snap, snap!
"Why is the nightclub mama-san ranked so high in your character profile!?"
Snap, snap!
"...Finally, there's a normal person here! No, why did you have to become like me?!"
Beichen pulled Xiangying, who was twitching, over with tears in his eyes:
"Anyway, just change your clothes and you'll be fine."
"Understood. Scanning... Scan completed."
Snap, snap!
...Then, in front of Beichen, there appeared a figure wearing the clothes of Heihuo, Xiang Ying.
"Wow! I didn't realize that Xiang Ying, you actually have a pretty good figure!" Beichen exclaimed in admiration - because Xiang Ying's clothes were not very tight, it was difficult to see his muscle curves before he put on Hei Huo's clothes.
“Eh?! Ah… Master… Master… No, that… I…”
Xiang Ying was a little incoherent.
"As long as the master likes it, that's all—Atlas over there, stop making weird gestures with my face!"
“…”
“…”
In short, somehow, the entire open space was shrouded in inexplicable dark clouds.
Even Xifeng, who had an outstanding ability to withstand pressure, showed a brief collapse on his face - he took a breath to calm the twitching corners of his mouth.
"After all, this can only deceive human eyes. The astral spirit detection of the war weapon can still sense the aura of the Moon Envoy possessing him."
"Then, Atlas, can you find a way to isolate yourself from this aura?"
"learn."
There was another burst of photons flashing, and a layer of something like a light film covered his body surface and then slowly penetrated into his body and disappeared.
Xifeng then nodded expressionlessly, "Now he looks no different from a human. ──But is it really okay? There's a human who looks exactly like a war machine, and both of them are around you?"
"This...or else Atlas, you should wear a mask!"
"learn."
Then a silver mask appeared on Atlas's face. ——Star power is really useful.
"Is this all right now, Zephyr?"
"Well, that's about it regarding his aftermath."
"Are there any more..."
Beichen let out a low cry of exhaustion.
Xifeng remained silent for a few seconds.
"Let me observe for a while before I tell you."
Seeing that Xifeng refused to speak, Beichen felt a little uneasy, but at this time Longyun spoke from the side.
"Ah, speaking of this, Xiaochen, you still have a big trouble that you haven't dealt with yet."
“—Huh?”
Naraka nodded as well. "It's very immoral to just walk away without cleaning up after the situation, woman. You've caused us a lot of trouble."
"...Uh,...what's going on? Oboroku and Naraka?"
The bad feeling is getting stronger and stronger.
Longyun sighed.
"...Do you still remember that spear? The one called Ling Shuang."
“…”
Beichen was silent, then nodded with a frown. Speaking of Ling Shuang, her mood suddenly became a little heavy.
"That guy... almost starved to death because of you."
"What?"
Beichen's expression changed, and his gentle face suddenly became extremely cold.
"Longyun, could you please explain in detail what happened?"
Perhaps the change in Beichen's expression was a little beyond Longyun's expectations. Longyun was stunned for a few seconds before speaking again.
"Well... he signed a contract with another ninth-level spiritual warrior, but they fell out after a few days. He hasn't eaten since then. His star energy reserves are supposed to last ten days, but you've been gone for almost a month."
"you mean……"
"Ah... This happens sometimes with weapons. Once you've chosen someone, you don't want them to be used by anyone else, so..."
"—He's threatening me with his own life to sign a contract with him?"
Beichen interrupted Longyun coldly, and his tone became unpleasant.
What was this? A relationship where one partner, on the verge of breaking up, was hysterically clinging to the relationship, threatening and throwing tantrums, like he was going to commit suicide?
——And the expression on Longyun's face gradually became worse.
"Well, let me tell you—Xiaochen, I know there's some grudge between you two, but... I wouldn't force you to be moved by him. At least there's no need to speculate about his feelings from a malicious perspective, right? After all, he's never asked you for anything. Even when you left, he didn't chase you or try to keep you. He just stayed there, waiting to die."
As he spoke, he smoothed his long fiery red hair, and his expression seemed to be standing up for Ling Shuang.
"Your thinking is too negative and heartless. This doesn't sound like Xiang Beichen, who said he couldn't abandon six injured people and fought against powerful enemies to protect me and the dead monk."
“…”
Beichen lowered his head, staring at the tip of his shoes with a bit of annoyance and guilt.
Indeed, Longyun is right.
Once you have confirmed a person's position in your mind, whatever actions that person takes will easily be guided by subjective interpretations with emotional overtones.
She felt that Ling Shuang was arrogant and tactless, so in her eyes, Ling Shuang's starvation became a means of intimidation - even though he himself might not have thought so at all.
──She is indeed still too narrow-minded.
"I'm sorry, Longyun. Perhaps I'm too prejudiced against him. I'll try to avoid it in the future."
Beichen apologized softly.
Seeing that she frankly admitted her deviation in thinking, Longyun's sullen face immediately brightened up.
"Yeah! Girls who can discover their own problems are the cutest. She's worthy of being our Xiaochen!"
"What do you mean your house? It's obviously ours!"
Black Disaster immediately shouted in dissatisfaction.
"Wait, Brother Black Fate, you're wrong. We are the masters of the house!"
"Stupid Shadow, don't just stay in your position like that! Overthrowing the superior is the truth! Counterattack is the trend!"
"What weird theory are you talking about, Su Jie!"
Beichen helplessly looked at the war machines that were in chaos again, while Atlas came closer and its transparent tail hidden under the photon camouflage (?) wrapped around Beichen's hand like a spoiled child.
“…”
“…”
The two looked at each other expressionlessly for ten seconds. Finally, Beichen admitted defeat and looked away awkwardly.
She had a strong and devastating premonition:
...The troubles seem to be increasing.
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