Evolution - Chapter 153
Chapter 153
Ji Changqing had calmed down. Before, she had been anxious only because she wasn’t by Yu Zhiyao’s side. Now was different. No matter what happened, the two of them were together.
Each mecha could carry one person. The number of technicians who remained on the starship was the same as the number of mecha pilots; they still wanted to make an effort.
Everyone else had evacuated. A high-speed starship couldn’t maintain a forced docking for long. By the time Ji Changqing came aboard, the warship and the starship had already disengaged.
In seven hours, if they still couldn’t find a solution, they would leave one by one from the maintenance bay, piloting the mechas. Half an hour would be more than enough time to escape the blast radius.
When the two met, their reunion wasn’t some cliché scene of tearful, choked-up words. They simply gave each other a smile. Ji Changqing casually sat down in a small empty space nearby, careful not to obstruct anyone’s work, and let out a long breath. “You really got dragged into a mess because of me this time.”
Yu Zhiyao shot her a look and said slowly, “Don’t flatter yourself. It’s hard to say who dragged who into this.” It was obvious the measures taken against her were far more extensive. “They took my comm-link and demanded the passwords for all the research data inside.”
“Huh? You actually carry that kind of detailed data with you?” Ji Changqing asked in surprise. That wasn’t her style at all.
“Oh. Clearly, they don’t know me as well as you do,” Yu Zhiyao said nonchalantly, a hint of smug satisfaction in her voice. “Let’s say it’s seventy percent real and thirty percent fake. If they try to use it casually, at best it’ll cost them money; at worst, it’ll cost them their health.”
Ji Changqing grinned and gave her a thumbs-up, then worried on her behalf, “What if you have too many versions and get them mixed up yourself?”
Yu Zhiyao gave her a look that disdained her intelligence.
The people bustling around them broke out in a cold sweat as they listened. What kind of devils were these two?
“In the will I write before every mission, I split everything in two: half for you, half for my parents. What about you?”
“My assets: seven parts for you, one for my mom, and one each for my niece and nephew. My research findings, data, manuscripts, and all unfinished projects go to He Yi.”
Ji Changqing couldn’t help but click her tongue, her voice tinged with jealousy. “You’re certainly good to He Yi.” And she was right—the things she was leaving He Yi were priceless.
The two of them chattered on, talking about anything and everything. As they talked, they huddled together to study the star chart, estimating where they would be before the explosion and whether it might trigger things like spatial turbulence or a meteor shower.
The people nearby pretended they hadn’t brought their ears with them, continuously discussing models and simulating disarmaments, racing against the clock to find a way to save them before the deadline.
To save time, everyone drank nutrient solution for lunch. Yu Zhiyao even coaxed Ji Changqing into taking a short nap. The whole scene looked like a mundane day for overworked employees pulling an all-nighter to crack a tough problem, too busy to even eat, only managing to snatch a moment of rest amidst the chaos.
As the time ticked past one-thirty in the afternoon, Yu Zhiyao calmly advised everyone to leave. “This region is too complex, and we have to consider the type of bomb they used. It might be more powerful than we estimated. We can’t delay any longer.”
“It’s because we’re not good enough, we’re just too useless!” Someone squatted down, clutching their head and frantically tearing at their hair.
The sweat-drenched crew was overcome with shame. This feeling of giving their all to save someone, only to feel more and more powerless the harder they tried, was truly agonizing. The two people at the center of it all were still calm, while they themselves were on the verge of tears.
Ji Changqing didn’t leave. Her short nap had left her in much better spirits. She did her best to comfort the crew who had tried so hard. “We’ve come up with a plan. There’s at least a sliver of hope. We have to try.”
The squad leader’s hands were itching to punch her! What angered him most was that Ji Changqing had already reported this plan—this sliver of hope—to their superiors.
Even though it was highly likely to end with both of them dead, the higher-ups were undoubtedly tempted.
To the Alliance, Yu Zhiyao’s value was far greater than Ji Changqing’s.
Wasn’t he the same? When he heard Ji Changqing say she was staying, he wanted to knock her out and drag her away. But when he heard her mention a sliver of hope, he couldn’t help but waver. What if it actually worked?
One by one, the group dejectedly departed. Before Lu Youxia left, tears were already streaming down her face. Earlier, when she had crossed from the warship to the starship and passed Ji Changqing, she had felt a little shy—after all, Ji Changqing was in a major’s uniform, while she was still just a captain.
Now, passing her again on the way back to the warship, every step felt so heavy she could barely lift her feet.
Ji Changqing consoled and saw off each person, creating a somewhat comical scene. After everyone had left, she was still in the mood to be a little cheeky, sidling up to Yu Zhiyao. “Doesn’t this feel like a bride and groom thanking their guests and seeing them off one by one after the wedding?”
Yu Zhiyao seemed to consider it for a moment. “Then this must be a pretty shabby wedding, huh?”
Ji Changqing wrinkled her nose at her, making a pig face. Then she briskly went to the cockpit to adjust the speed parameters, accelerating their course and altering their direction ever so slightly.
She returned and slipped into her mecha, carefully controlling its steps. She used the mecha’s blade to meticulously cut through the section of the hull where Yu Zhiyao was seated, on the opposite side. She left a thin layer intact, just enough to hold for two or three minutes at high speed, but something her mecha could smash through in an instant with a burst of acceleration.
By the time she finished, the counter showed thirty-one minutes remaining. Ji Changqing maneuvered the mecha, bent down, and extended its hands, hovering them before Yu Zhiyao. “Ms. Yu Zhiyao, are you ready?” she asked, her tone mimicking that of someone about to walk down the aisle to be married.
Four specially made mecha knives, controlled by her mental power, hovered just over the locks binding Yu Zhiyao’s limbs.
Yu Zhiyao enveloped her entire body with her mutated mental power. “I’m ready. You can begin.”
The four small knives plunged into the locks. With a flick and a twist, there was a click. In the next instant, Yu Zhiyao landed steadily in the mecha’s open co-pilot seat. Simultaneously, Ji Changqing turned, twisted her waist, and slammed the mecha’s right shoulder hard against the pre-cut section of the hull!
The explosion began with a single bang, before the chain reaction could set off a full fireworks display. Ji Changqing took the first wave of the blast with the main cockpit and the mecha’s left shoulder and back. The powerful release of energy and searing heat nearly melted the entire left side of the mecha.
Protected by both her mental power shield and the micro-armor, Yu Zhiyao’s vision went black and her head felt like it was splitting apart. She forced herself to close the co-pilot hatch, which had been slightly warped by the impact. Propelled by the force of their ramming acceleration and the explosive blast from behind, their mecha shot out of the starship.
Space was utterly silent, save for the furious, soundless firework blooming behind them.
Both of them were still conscious, but one had suffered severe mental trauma, and the other, grievous physical injuries. They had both lost the ability to control the mecha, which could only continue to accelerate forward in a straight line.
“Not good, the starship’s core reactor is about to blow!” On the warship, parked a safe two hundred kilometers away, everyone’s hearts were in their throats. The relief they had felt seeing the mecha emerge was instantly replaced by even greater tension as the monitoring instruments blared an alarm.
“Get out of there!” Everyone clenched their fists, their minds collectively imagining countless hands desperately pushing the mecha away.
“Why is it so slow!”
A more violent explosion erupted. Countless fragments of the ship’s hull shot out in all directions. The visibly damaged, slow-moving mecha was caught in the blast, tossed and swept along in waves that rippled outward.
It was struck repeatedly by debris and innocent meteorites caught in the maelstrom, losing its original trajectory long ago.
Just as the most powerful part of the explosion seemed to be over, it looked like as long as they were still breathing, they could hold on until the blast subsided and a rescue team could retrieve them, saving their lives.
But at that moment, all the instruments shrieked with the highest level of alarm. “Fall back! Fall back! Retreat immediately!”
“My god, spatial turbulence!”
“No, no, no!”
The crews of the three large and four small warships reacted with extreme speed, immediately pulling back. Pushing their engines to maximum, they retreated from their two-hundred-kilometer safe distance to over a thousand kilometers away in just two or three minutes.
The blast wave, which had been rippling outward like waves on water, was now like a great whale inhaling. Everything within a radius of three to five hundred kilometers was caught in an inescapable suction, pulled irresistibly toward the center. The closer something was, the faster it was drawn in!
In just two or three minutes, the chaotic, spectacular scene of the violent explosion and dancing debris was wiped clean. Not a single speck of dust remained. It was as if nothing had ever happened, as if nothing had ever existed there at all.
Everyone stared, mouths agape, at the empty expanse of space, rendered speechless for a long time.
Where was the starship? The debris? And most importantly, where was the mecha carrying Ji Changqing and Yu Zhiyao?!
What kind of goddamn plot twist was this? They had clearly escaped being blown to smithereens, only to vanish from right in front of them in the most dramatic way possible.
They didn’t even know where to begin a rescue.
Deep in space, a giant beast with the head of a leopard and the body of a dragon, which had been gleefully swatting a star-beast with its tail, suddenly looked toward the east as if it sensed something. Its leopard-like face was filled with confusion. “Huh? Why does it feel like there’s a very familiar soul aura over there?”
The sensation had been incredibly strong for a moment, so intense that it couldn’t miss it. But after that initial burst, it had gradually weakened until it was barely perceptible, almost unnoticeable unless one was paying close attention.
Who could it be? The giant beast scratched its chin with the tip of its tail, trying to remember.
As it thought, its expression shifted from confusion to suspicion, and then to utter shock. Its face froze, and the tip of its tail stilled, unmoving for a long time.
It dredged up a distant memory, and an phantom ache spread through its entire body.
Who else could it be but that sword-maniac who, nearly ten thousand years ago, had beaten it to a pulp and nearly run it through, before threatening to drain its blood, carve its flesh, peel its skin, and break its bones!
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