Long Teng was puzzled by his own reaction. He stood there for a moment, stunned. Seeing Kabu raise his hand to put it on Bai Jiao's shoulder, he acted faster than he thought. He quickly ran to Bai Jiao's side, smiling as he put his arm around her shoulder and awkwardly stood between the two of them: "Ah Jiao, Ah Sen said it's time for lunch."
Bai Jiao was already used to his carefree behavior. She took his hand away: "Wait a minute, I'll put the medicine away." Some medicines would spoil easily if left untreated, so he took advantage of the time he was there to dry some medicines.
Kabu immediately said, "I'll help you pack them, you can come back this afternoon to take them away!"
Bai Jiao smiled faintly, "No need, I can do it myself." He looked at Long Teng, "When are we leaving?"
Long Teng looked at him suspiciously and honestly said, "I don't know."
Bai Jiao lowered his eyes to hide the smile in them, and packed up the medicinal herbs, saying, "Probably not for more than a few days, we've been here quite a while." Kabu
looked at Bai Jiao leaving with Long Teng with disappointment. He was the only wizard of the Lion Clan, so he wasn't stupid. Bai Jiao deliberately asked when they were leaving, actually reminding him.
Kawei asked him to have dinner, and seeing his appearance, he sighed, "I told you a long time ago, they're not from here."
Life in the various tribes quickly returned to normal, and the beastmen began packing their things to prepare for the rainy season and their journey to the Holy Mountain. Xie Sen and his three companions stayed at the Holy Mountain for another three days, finding many plants. After confirming that they had collected enough, the four of them discussed and decided to return to the spaceship and leave the next day.
Back on the spaceship, everyone packed their belongings. Xie Sen had drawn simple sketches from the information he had compiled on water diversion, farming, and animal husbandry. Unable to find pen and paper, he used charcoal to draw on strips of cloth, making them easy to understand.
He took the drawings to Kawi and explained them briefly to make sure Kawi could understand. Kawi did understand and thanked him profusely with great emotion. Xie Sen smiled and reminded him to carve the drawings onto stone with a bone knife to preserve them longer.
After doing this, Xie Sen felt much better; he hoped these drawings could compensate for the effects of the wood energy. Maine led him out of the Lion Clan tribe. After walking for a while, Maine stopped and touched his cheek. "Feeling better?"
Xie Sen looked at him in surprise. Maine said, "I felt it. Your guilt towards them," he said, frowning. "But actually, you helped them."
Xie Sen pursed his lips. "The strangeness of the Holy Mountain was because of energy. The energy is related to me. I caused the trouble, but fortunately, it was resolved in time." Maine frowned and remained
silent for a moment. "I don't understand. Your plants like this energy. You collect energy. What does that have to do with you?"
Xie Sen thought for a while. This question was really difficult to answer. He had told Maine before that Adan liked energy, so he collected it. But in fact, the energy originally belonged to Adan. He was actually taking back the energy.
If he told the truth, his words would be contradictory. If he didn't tell the truth, he couldn't explain his relationship with the energy. He simply shook Maine's hand. "This question is difficult to explain. Wait... wait until the petals have brightened in color, and then I'll tell you in detail, okay?"
Maine valued him too much. He wasn't worried that Maine would look at him strangely after knowing about the system. But he didn't intend to tell him either. Now wasn't the time. The energy was closely related to his health, and he didn't want Maine to know until he could be completely sure everything was alright.
He knew Maine would be even more anxious than he was. The energy recovery was going smoothly and progressing quickly, and he didn't want Maine to worry unnecessarily.
Maine looked at him with deep eyes, and Xie Sen felt inexplicably guilty. After a long while, Maine lowered his head and kissed his lips, saying in a deep voice, "Okay." He didn't want to put Xie Sen in a difficult position.
Xie Sen reached out and put his arms around his neck, returning the kiss.
The two returned to the spaceship. Xie Sen sat on the sofa, looking at the darkening sky outside the window, silently pondering. The wood energy had almost caused serious consequences; he wondered what would happen to the remaining two types of energy.
In any case, the longer it dragged on, the greater the potential impact; recovering it as soon as possible was the safest option. He called out to Adan in his mind, asking directly, "Adan, can you sense the location of the remaining energy?"
Adan responded quickly, its voice excited: "I sense the golden energy, it's very close to us!"
Xie Sen immediately turned on his bracelet. The bracelet was currently offline, but many basic functions still worked. He brought up the downloaded interstellar map, and his finger followed Adan's description on the map, quickly finding the location of the golden energy—the planet Blue.
A picture of this large planet immediately appeared in Xie Sen's mind; it was indeed very close to the small planet they were currently on.
He remembered Long Teng mentioning that this was a planet with a lot of water. He rested his chin on his hand and discussed with Adan, "The corresponding color of gold energy is white. What kind of vessel do you think it will seek?"
Adan said with a troubled expression, "I don't know. I can only sense that the aura around it is very pure."
Xie Sen thought for a moment, "Never mind, once we get there, you'll be able to sense the exact location. Blue Star is close to here. I'll discuss with them whether we should go directly to Blue Star instead of returning to Brant Star."
Adan's tone was very happy, "Yay, Asen is great! We'll definitely be able to recover the gold energy soon!"
No one else objected to Xie Sen's suggestion. Maine naturally went along with him, and Long Teng was particularly excited, "Great! Blue Star is beautiful and fun, and there are many public fighting arenas. I love it there!"
Bai Jiao smiled, "Blue Star is a famous tourist planet in interstellar space. I've seen it many times in travel magazines but haven't been there yet, which I've always felt is a pity. I'm really looking forward to going."
Liu Chen only needed to worry about things related to the spaceship. Hearing that they were going to Blue Star, where they could replenish their energy, he nodded and let Long Teng plan the route. After their discussion, they all returned to their rooms.
The next morning, Maine and Long Teng stored their contracted beasts in their spatial storage. Kawei led their entire tribe to see them off, bringing with them plenty of local wild fruits.
Xie Sen thanked them, and the four were about to board the spaceship when Kabu suddenly rushed up to Bai Jiao, his eyes filled with expectation and affection: "Can you stay and be my partner?" he asked firmly, "I will be good to you for the rest of my life!"
Bai Jiao was stunned. Because his contracted beast was a B-grade, too high a level for a female to meet the mainstream female standard, he was often isolated. He was also engrossed in researching various medicinal herbs and making medicine, and had very little time to interact with people. Although he was handsome and came from a good family, this was the first time he had been confessed to like this.
He paused for a moment, then shook his head: "Sorry." Then he turned and boarded the spaceship.
Kabu watched the spaceship take off, standing there for a long time.
Liu Chen and Maine went to the cockpit, while Xie Sen and the other two sat in the dining room, preparing to talk about Blue Star. After sitting down, Xie Sen saw Bai Jiao looking out the window and didn't say anything to disturb him.
Bai Jiao sat on the stool by the window, watching the figure gradually shrink and disappear, his chin resting on his hand, looking somewhat dazed. He didn't quite understand why Kabu had confessed to him.
In his memory, he was very unpopular with males, and he had a very bad impression of them. Some males were strange; even though they had no interaction with him, they would feign surprise upon seeing him, exclaiming in exaggerated tone, "Is he that B-rank female beast master?" and then burst into laughter with their companions.
He thought those people were crazy and pretended not to see them, but they were always dissatisfied, stopping him and saying unpleasant things. He didn't want to waste time, so he would just sprinkle some powder to take care of them.
After that, no one dared to stop him anymore. Of course, no one wanted to approach him either. He had heard people call him a 'pseudo-male' more than once in private, and even take pleasure in speculating about the miserable life of his future mate.
"Haha, only gentle females are welcomed by males. Someone like him, even at fifty, no one would want him, right? Maybe he could find a 'pseudo-female' to make a perfect pair."
So why did Kabu confess to him?
Long Teng looked at Bai Jiao and tugged at his sleeve: "Why are you unhappy?" He added, "Don't be unhappy."
Bai Jiao snapped out of his daze, a slight smile playing on his lips. He actually remembered those silly words.
He smiled: "I'm not unhappy." He looked Long Teng up and down, puzzled, "But you, aren't you always so energetic? Why do you seem so listless?"
Long Teng's clear black and white eyes looked at him: "I was afraid you'd agree to stay with Kabu. I was initially happy that you rejected Kabu, but since you seem unhappy, I'm unhappy too."
Bai Jiao was stunned. Long Teng's eyes were clear and sincere, letting him know that these words were true. He felt a warmth in his heart. This wasn't the first time he'd felt this way; he'd felt it the last time Long Teng gave him plants.
He smiled, his beautiful eyes crinkling, his handsome face no longer as expressionless as a jade sculpture, shutting people off, like a spring breeze brushing away snowflakes from red plum blossoms, revealing a vibrant true face.
"I was just thinking about something, I wasn't upset."
Long Teng stared at Bai Jiao, his heart inexplicably racing. He flashed a bright smile, revealing gleaming white teeth: "That's good," he couldn't help but say, his eyes sparkling, "You're so beautiful."
Bai Jiao smiled again, and Xie Sen, sitting opposite them, couldn't help but laugh too. Bai Jiao looked over, a little embarrassed. Xie Sen said, "A-Teng is right, you are very beautiful."
Xie Sen looked at the two opposite him, feeling that they were somewhat different from before, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Long Teng quickly added, "Right, right, I'm absolutely right!"
Bai Jiao's lips curved slightly, not wanting to continue discussing his appearance. Turning the topic to business: "I've only seen the tourist brochure. Blue Star is very large, 90% of it is water, and the main inhabitants are merfolk. However, since it's a tourist planet, you can find all sorts of races."
Xie Sen was surprised: "Mermaids? You mean the kind whose lower body is a tail?"
"Yes," Bai Jiao looked at him suspiciously; his description was too strange. "Mermaids have a long history, perhaps related to their living environment. They are different from the Brant Star people; they can switch between beast and human forms, and they are very powerful. They don't have contracted beasts."
Xie Sen thought about the countless movies and TV shows about mermaids and became even more curious about Blue Star.
"They swim incredibly fast!" Long Teng's eyes lit up. "We definitely have to ride a mermaid boat; it's so much fun!"
Bai Jiao looked at Xie Sen: "Do you have a destination in mind? Or are you just wandering around?"
Xie Sen: "Yes."
Bai Jiao smiled and didn't ask any further questions. He sensed that Xie Sen's decisions about where to go were never impulsive; they always had a purpose.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, the spaceship arrived at Blue Star. Upon entry, each person paid an entrance fee of ten thousand star coins.
The spaceship landed at a massive spaceport. Upon disembarking, several notification sounds rang out, and everyone received a welcome message; their personal wristbands were finally connected to the network.
Liu Chen stood by the spaceship door and said, "Contact me when you leave."
Long Teng nodded, "Okay, thank you, Uncle Liu." He then grabbed Bai Jiao's hand and ran out, turning back to wave to Xie Sen and Maine, "Hurry, hurry!"
Xie Sen nodded in response and, hand in hand with Maine, quickly walked out. Outside the spaceport, a faint smell of seawater filled the air. Apart from the spaceport behind them, the surrounding area was filled with azure water, stretching to the horizon.
In the distance, many tall buildings dotted the sea, while closer by, various speedboats and aircraft were docked around the spaceport. Many tourists emerged from the spaceport, people of all skin colors and hair colors, with excited exclamations like "Wow!" constantly emanating from them.
Xie Sen noticed that most people used transportation, while a small number summoned flying contracted beasts and left directly on them.
Xie Sen mentally asked Adan for the exact location of the golden energy. Adan was silent for a moment, then said, "One hundred and sixty kilometers to the west."
"Where to?" Maine put his arm around Xie Sen, protecting him from being bumped into.
Xie Sen told him the location: "Let's go by ourselves!" He wasn't sure what kind of impact the golden energy would have. The population of Blue Star was large and diverse, so the fewer people going, the better.
Long Teng circled around and ran over to ask where they were going. Xie Sen told him the destination and said he would go by himself. Without saying a word, Long Teng summoned his flying dragon beast. There were too many people on the ground, and the flying dragon beast had no place to land, so it could only fly in mid-air.
"Oh my god, a flying dragon beast!" Its huge size was too eye-catching and immediately attracted the attention of the tourists.
"An S-class contracted beast, it's already formed a contract. Is some important person here?" someone asked curiously.
Long Teng looked at the people around him with worry: "How are we going to get up here? If Dahei comes down, it'll crush everyone."
Xie Sen didn't want to attract attention, so he whispered, "I'll have the vines lift us up, and then I'll have the Flying Dragon Beast fly faster."
Long Teng put his arm around Bai Jiao's shoulder: "Jiao and I will go together."
Xie Sen nodded, and Maine summoned a Flying Lion Beast, which stopped side by side with the Flying Dragon Beast. The crowd of tourists erupted again: "Flying Lion Beast! It's actually a Flying Lion Beast!"
"Two S-rank contracted beasts, has something big happened on Planet Blue?"
Xie Sen quickly summoned two watermelon vines, and in the next instant, Long Teng and Bai Jiao, and himself and Maine were entangled in the watermelon vines and sent to the backs of the Flying Dragon Beast and the Flying Lion Beast, respectively.
The tourists were stunned. What had just happened?
"Am I seeing things? Those people just flew up and rode away on their contracted beasts?"
"I saw it too! How did they do that? That's amazing!"
"I couldn't see their faces clearly, but they looked very young. Were they nobles from some planet?"
Xie Sen was oblivious to the discussion behind him. He was sitting on the back of his flying lion beast, leaning against Maine and enjoying the scenery. The view from above was expansive, with blue seawater everywhere, a light blue sky, and white clouds like large clumps of cotton. The vastness of the sky and sea was incredibly soothing.
Occasionally, they would pass by some buildings, ornate in style, standing firmly in the water. One building in particular stood out, its exterior entirely made of deep blue glass, its height creating the illusion of merging with the clouds. There were
many flying contracted beasts on the road and many flying machines above, so the flying lion beast and flying dragon beast couldn't fly as freely as they wanted, and their speed wasn't very fast.
Xie Sen noticed the temperature on his right shoulder gradually increasing, knowing that the distance to the energy was closing, and he felt very relaxed. However, after a short while, he frowned: "Stop."
The Flying Lion Beast stopped in place, and the Flying Dragon Beast turned back after passing it, letting out a soft roar. Long Teng asked loudly, "What's wrong?"
Xie Sen touched his right shoulder; the temperature was dropping, and he was getting further and further away from the energy. He immediately realized that the energy was moving.
"I'm not going there," Xie Sen said, asking Adan in his mind, "Adan, can you sense its exact location?"
Adan replied, "Wait a minute, eh... its location is changing, and the energy is sometimes strong and sometimes weak. I need to expend more energy to sense its location. It's currently in the east, fifteen kilometers away from here, a bit further... sixteen kilometers."
They moved about a kilometer away in about half a minute, meaning the energy carrier was moving at a speed exceeding one hundred kilometers per hour.
Xie Sen immediately said to Long Teng, "Follow the Flying Lion Beast," rubbing its neck. "Can we fly higher? Let's take the uppermost passage, avoiding the flying vehicles and other contracted beasts, and fly east as fast as we can."
"Yes." After the Flying Lion Beast finished speaking, its wings flapped dramatically up and down, its body suddenly rising. It quickly turned its head and flew east.
Without the influence of other flying objects, the speed suddenly became extremely fast. Xie Sen gripped the Flying Lion Beast's mane tightly, and Maine held him in her arms, asking in his ear, "Is the energy moving?"
Xie Sen nodded, "Yes, it's getting closer and closer to us now."
Maine placed her hand on his right shoulder; the sunflower that had been perched on his right shoulder had already moved to his left shoulder upon entering the territory, sensing the high temperature.
Maine was a little worried: "The temperature is very high, won't you feel uncomfortable?"
Xie Sen shook his head: "No."
Twenty minutes later, Xie Sen felt the temperature on his right shoulder rise to its peak, then drop a little after a moment. He quickly looked down and behind him, where there was an aircraft getting further and further away from them. He quickly said: "Slow down."
When the aircraft passed below and over the Flying Lion Beast, Xie Sen felt the change in temperature on his right shoulder and confirmed that the golden energy was there. At the same time, he heard a crying voice in his mind: "Waaah, so scary..."
The crying was soft and pitiful, like a child's, but the voice was not human.
He was stunned and quickly said to the Flying Lion Beast: "Follow that aircraft."
The Flying Lion Beast immediately accelerated and followed the aircraft at a distance.
Adan's voice was weak, but her tone was excited: "It's right there, very close. It's strange, why is the energy sensing intermittent?"
Xie Sen asked, "Did you use too much energy?"
Adan replied, "Yes, the gold energy is so strange, but I can sense the other energies in real time."
Xie Sen was a little worried: "You rest first, I'll keep an eye on it, I'll call you if anything happens."
"Okay." After Adan finished speaking, she fell silent.
Xie Sen listened to the soft crying sounds that came from time to time, and he had a guess in his mind. He looked at the aircraft in front of him and asked in his mind, "Can you hear me?"
"Waaah... eh," the crying stopped, and a soft, sweet voice asked in confusion, "Who are you? A big pincer? Or a big tail?"
Xie Sen: "..." What are these things?
"I am human, do you have very strong energy in your body?" he asked.
"How did you know? No, humans can't understand me, waaaaah, I told them not to catch me, but they still took me away, and they hit me with those big pincers and that big tail, waaaaah..."
Xie Sen was very troubled, he had never seen someone cry so much: "I really am human, because you have energy in your body, I can communicate with you, how are you feeling now? Has the energy affected you?"
"I've become so big, waaaah, really big, and I've become stupid, I always like to move, and I like to open my mouth, the elders said only idiots like to open their mouths, waaaah, I was caught because I opened my mouth, I've become an idiot..."
Xie Sen was completely confused, what was all this?
"You're not an idiot," he tried to comfort her, "Look, you can communicate with me, your thinking is very clear, you're very smart."
The other person's voice was soft, but very stubborn: "No, I am, I clearly don't want to move, I don't want to open my mouth, I can't even control my own actions, I'm just an idiot, waaaah..."
Xie Sen rubbed his forehead, he was a little troubled by the crying and couldn't think of how to comfort her.
Maine asked, "What's wrong?"
Shesen replied, "Nothing. The energy is in the creature, and I'm communicating with it."
Maine looked at the aircraft. "Up there?"
Shesen nodded. "Yes." Maine hugged him tightly, not saying anything more to disturb him.
Shesen thought for a moment and said in his mind, "The energy originally belonged to me. I can reclaim it. After reclaiming you, you can control yourself."
"Really?" The other's tone rose, then he started crying again. "Waaah, but I've been captured."
"I'll save you... What kind of creature are you? What do they want with you?" Shesen asked.
"They want to steal my treasure," the other said. "I'm a silver seashell, and they call me Little Silver with my big pincers. Waaah, I'm not Little Silver anymore! I've become so big!"
A seashell? Xie Sen pondered for a moment. Having his mouth grabbed and his treasure stolen, he guessed, "Is your treasure a pearl?"
"Yes, it's so beautiful! It's gotten so much bigger, the energy is in it! Waaah, it's all my fault for not being able to control myself. Someone saw it when I opened my mouth."
Xie Sen suddenly realized. Although he didn't know how much the shell had grown—judging by the size of the aircraft, it couldn't possibly have grown as big as a sunflower—with energy, it definitely wouldn't be small. No wonder it was taken away.
"Waaah, will you really come to save me? They're trying to pry my mouth open again! It's so scary! Waaah, they're even hammering my shell! What should I do? Am I going to die…"
Xie Sen's heart tightened. Regardless of Little Silver's species, it was still an intelligent being that could communicate with him. He couldn't remain indifferent to Little Silver's death. Besides, without the golden energy, it was just a happy little shell and wouldn't be in such danger.
He comforted it, "No, don't open your mouth! I'll definitely find a way to save you." He didn't know much about shellfish, but he knew that shells were hard and the flesh was soft.
"Mmm, I'll try my best not to open my mouth when there are people around," Little Silver choked out. "Hurry up and come!"
Xie Sen was about to discuss the possibility of directly stealing it with Maine when Maine said, "They're preparing to land."
Just as Maine said, the aircraft descended rapidly and finally stopped below a tall building, the same one Xie Sen had seen on the way there—the one with blue windows that seemed to connect with the clouds.
Xie Sen quickly said, "Land."
During the descent, Xie Sen kept his eyes fixed on the ground below. A team of tall, uniformed men walked out of the building and ran directly to the aircraft's entrance, standing in two rows. Four burly men stepped out of the aircraft, carrying a large wooden crate, and were escorted into the building by the uniformed men.
The Flying Lion and Flying Dragon landed below, immediately attracting their attention, and they stopped moving forward.
The Flying Lion landed steadily in front of them, and Maine jumped down with Xie Sen in her arms. Xie Sen's shoulders felt even hotter, and Little Silver's cries became clearer.
The burly man carrying the wooden crate had a gleam in his eyes. Anyone who possessed a high-level contracted beast was of high status, and as for S-level contracted beasts, they were usually only possessed by top figures on each star.
He laughed loudly, "Hahaha, as expected of the lords of the Flying Eagle Beast and the Flying Dragon Beast, your information network is so good. But guys, you're too impatient. Youhai hasn't decided how to sell this treasure yet. Wait for news!
" Long Teng leaned closer, "Treasure? Is it inside the wooden crate? What's inside?"
The burly man was taken aback, his eyes becoming wary, "Didn't you see Youhai's advertisement and want to see the treasure in advance? Then why are you blocking our way?"
The black-uniformed squad took a step forward in unison, their hands on the weapons at their waists.
Xie Sen quickly laughed, "Of course I came because of the advertisement," he exaggerated, "Oh, I've never seen such a big seashell before, I'm so curious, can I take a look?"
The uniformed squad member lowered his weapon, and the burly man laughed again, "Hahaha, I'm sorry I have to refuse you, it won't be shown again until the method of sale is determined," he shrugged, "You know, mysterious treasures are even more tempting."
Xie Sen stared at the wooden box, feeling a little anxious listening to Little Silver's cries.
Seeing his gaze fixed on the wooden box, the burly man assumed he really wanted it and laughed, "I know, females are completely powerless against beautiful things. If you're in a hurry, why don't you stay in the Dark Sea? Once the sales method is determined, you can make your move immediately. Okay, buddy, move aside, we're busy!"
Xie Sen thought to himself, damn it, no resistance at all. He thought for a moment, but couldn't come up with a good solution, so he could only move aside. This was someone else's territory, and there were so many armed guards; forcing it was definitely not the right thing to do.
He watched the burly men carry the wooden crates into the building. He strode into the lobby, where a pretty waitress immediately greeted him, "Welcome to Youhai. How may I help you?"
As he spoke, he slightly extended his hand, and a virtual screen appeared above it. The screen displayed various options, including all kinds of food, drinks, and entertainment, each further subdivided. For example, gambling offered betting options like battle arenas, machines, and cards; shopping included shopping malls and auctions.
One building, encompassing everything, had it all.
Xie Sen immediately made his decision: "We need accommodation."