Chapter 237: Miss Mu, Please Act Automatically
Dust and debris automatically gathered to form cloud platforms resembling continental plates, floating in the Eternal Flow Sea, typically used as transfer and rest stops for long-distance voyages.
After human development, these cloud platforms would transform into islands suitable for long-term human habitation. Such islands were particularly common along the Northern Border Defense Line and the Southern Border Defense Line, mostly serving as military bases.
Berna Island was one of them. However, Berna Island was not a military base but a private island belonging to the Xize Walker.
Mu Qingtong piloted her cone-shaped ship to the outskirts of Berna Island. The island was enveloped by a massive airflow layer, like a gigantic bubble floating in the sea. Through the semi-transparent membrane, one could vaguely glimpse the scene within. Inside the island, hundreds of futuristic silver box-like houses were constructed. Capsule ships of various models were constantly taking off and landing from the reception platform, while a warship the size of a Star Wheel hovered in the sky, its infrared probes continuously sweeping the ground.
Through scanning, Xia Feng’s cone-shaped ship successfully landed on the platform. Berna Island was hosting an auction that night, so Xia Feng and Mu Qingtong had intercepted two nobles en route to the banquet, assuming their identities and invitations. As for Freya, she already had a disguised identity and invitation.
The island possessed a special formation that suppressed spirit pressure to a very low level upon entry. Fortunately, Xia Feng’s physical strength was already considerable, rendering him unafraid. The trio, having donned the elegant attire they’d seized, soon arrived at a grand hall. The auction had already begun.
To Xia Feng’s astonishment, this place not only auctioned contraband items like Boundless Stones but also Calamity Beasts! Various peculiar-looking Calamities were confined in specially made ink-black cages, suspended beneath a silver-glowing ceiling. Xia Feng looked up to see twenty Calamities, most of them One-eyed Calamities, seemingly posing no threat. Only the Four-eyed Calamity in the center, with its ferocious, bloody maw, roared and snarled at the assembled guests below.
However, what piqued Xia Feng’s interest was that the appearance of these Calamity Beasts was remarkably humanoid. It was known that Calamities with humanoid forms generally started from Five-eyed Calamities; low-eyed Calamities rarely possessed human-like forms.
“This is Berna Island’s secret experiment,” Freya’s voice sounded beside him. “Perfect Calamityization. These Calamity Beasts are actually transformed humans, but it appears they are all failures. If no one buys them, they will be banished to the Egret Forbidden Zone to fend for themselves.”
Xia Feng had heard of the Egret Forbidden Zone. While conflicts between the Imaginary Number Royal Court and the Empire had been minor for centuries, thirty years ago, a medium-scale battle occurred in the White Egret Sea Area along the Northern Border Defense Line, resulting in countless casualties and widespread uproar. The White Egret Sea Area was also devastated in this terrifying battle, with its Spacetime Turbulence becoming extremely violent, making it a no-go zone and thus a life forbidden zone.
“But what do these nobles want with Calamity Beasts?” Xia Feng frowned, puzzled. “And they are half-Calamities, mutated humans.”
Freya glanced at Xia Feng and patted his shoulder, saying knowingly and earnestly, “Little Xia Feng, you can never imagine the hobbies of bored big figures. Of course, it’s best not to think about them; it will shatter your worldview.”
“…”
Xia Feng’s eyes widened, and he recoiled slightly. “It seems Teacher, you know a lot? Hiss—Teacher, you wouldn’t…”
“Get lost,” Freya’s eyebrows shot up, and she smacked the back of Xia Feng’s head. Xia Feng rubbed his head, admitting that when Freya put on a stern face, she exuded a naturally intimidating aura. However, the substantial fullness beneath her off-the-shoulder evening gown always made Xia Feng falter. He averted his gaze to look at the cages above.
As more people in the hall raised their paddles, the auction proceeded orderly, approaching the halfway point.
“Distinguished Lords, please proceed to the ballroom to rest for a moment,” the host opened a heavy golden door leading underground, bowing with a smile. “VIP guests please follow me.”
According to Freya’s original plan, she intended to enter the underground laboratory as a VIP guest to locate her sister. However, following Xia Feng’s suggestion, they decided to have Miss Q investigate. Xia Feng and Freya would then find an opportunity to sneak into the second floor, splitting up for greater efficiency.
As the three guests who were to purchase special Calamity Beasts as VIPs departed, elegant dance music filled the hall. Gentlemen invited beautiful ladies, and they swayed quietly under the soft, dim lights. Freya’s slender waist, adorned in her luxurious gown, was embraced by Xia Feng’s large hand. Her back stiffened, and her beautiful eyes glanced at the student near her. Xia Feng’s gaze was directed towards Miss Q’s departure direction, as if contemplating something.
Seeing this, Freya slightly relaxed her stiff shoulders and followed his gaze with confusion. “Are you sure your friend is alright? Her spirit pressure seems to be only Third-stage.”
“Don’t worry, Teacher. Miss Q is a genius,” Xia Feng smiled faintly, offering her praise without reservation.
“Genius?” Freya’s delicate eyebrows arched. She remained skeptical. Even a genius must abide by the basic laws; a mere Third-stage cultivator would be utterly finished if they encountered a Fifth-stage. “Are you sure she won’t be discovered?”
“Teacher Freya, don’t worry, everything is proceeding according to plan.” Of course, Xia Feng didn’t actually have a plan. It was primarily because Mu Qingtong had said she could go down and take a look, and had already devised a detailed plan. Xia Feng naturally supported her unconditionally. Although he had no idea what Mu Qingtong was planning to do…
[Encountered two researchers dissecting a human body for experiments. Mu Qingtong beheaded both researchers, inflicting 1.2 tons of pain on the targets. You gained 0.12 points of strength.]
[Smashed a培养舱 and killed the half-human, half-Calamity monster inside, inflicting 10 tons of pain on the target. You gained 1 point of strength.]
[Used Instant Step to rapidly smash all培养舱, releasing nearly a hundred Calamity Beasts. Besieged by five Second-stage Spirit Master researchers, you decapitated them all with one slash, further improving your head-chopping instant cut technique.]
[Strength +0.12 +0.12]
“…”
Seeing this information, Xia Feng was utterly bewildered. Wait, Miss Mu, so your plan was to directly cause chaos and then take on everyone single-handedly??
Freya noticed Xia Feng’s momentarily lost gaze and tightened her grip around his waist. She patted Xia Feng’s broad back, asking in confusion, “What’s wrong?”
“Cough, nothing…” Xia Feng snapped back to reality, mentally giving Miss Mu a thumbs-up. Miss Mu is truly working hard, it’s great. He liked such diligent, always improving students. While contemplating, he felt his physical strength visibly increase and continued dancing with Teacher Freya’s slender waist. As they danced, the two quietly moved towards the staircase leading to the second floor.
[Current Strength: 893]
[Took down a guard, used hypnosis to control their soul, obtained the secret vault password, and entered the secret vault. Incidentally, sliced up a passing high-level Ape Insect Calamity, gaining 3 points of strength.]
[Mu Qingtong packed all the Level 3 Spirit Treasure Fruits (10), Snow Star Flower, Pine Cypress Wood, Blood Grass Crystal, Flower Horn Calamity Blood, White Jade Glazed Vase, and other Level 3 and Level 4 spirit materials from the secret vault into ‘Fei’s Inner Space’. Your thievery proficiency and skills have been slightly refined.]
[Mu Qingtong consumed 5 Level 3 Spirit Treasure Fruits, rapidly absorbing and adjusting her spirit particle structure while walking. Her soul space and spirit particle count further expanded, causing her spirit pressure level to drop significantly.]
Although there were 10 Level 3 Spirit Treasure Fruits, Mu Qingtong only ate 5. It was clear the remaining 5 were for him. Xia Feng was almost moved to tears. She truly is… I’m going to cry. But Miss Mu, I don’t need Spirit Treasure Fruits! Xia Feng felt his soul’s surface layer spirit particle count wildly increasing, and his bizarre spirit particle structure, constantly probing the verge of collapse yet always maintaining stability, gave him a thrilling sense of soaring into the clouds.
Consuming 5 Level 3 Spirit Treasure Fruits at once was extremely dangerous. After all, Spirit Treasure Fruits only increased spirit particle count and not spirit pressure density. Eating one Level 3 Spirit Treasure Fruit was like enlarging a mineral water bottle that held spirit particles; the amount of spirit particles it could store increased, but the spirit pressure density became sparse. If the spirit pressure protecting the soul’s surface layer became too sparse, there was a risk of the soul collapsing directly.
Fortunately, Miss Mu was incredibly powerful. Even though her spirit particle count had reached the level of a Fourth-stage mid-stage, she could still maintain her spirit pressure stability. This was practically impossible throughout the empire’s history. For instance, a Third-stage Spirit Master could, at most, achieve a Fourth-stage early-stage spirit particle count by consuming Spirit Treasure Fruits, allowing them to unleash a few more B-grade Spirit Robes than a normal Third-stage Spirit Master. Such Spirit Masters were known as pseudo-Fourth-stage. But it would stop at early Fourth-stage. If they consumed more and gained mid-Fourth-stage spirit particle counts, their souls would directly collapse, vanishing without a trace.
Because of this, although Spirit Treasure Fruits were very useful, no one would consume them indefinitely; it was no different from suicide.
!
Of course, there was now an exception.
[Current Strength: 899]
[A Third-stage Spirit Master and a Fourth-stage Sickle Calamity appeared, attacking Mu Qingtong. Because the Third-stage Spirit Master maddenedly shouted that they would chop Mu Qingtong into pieces and feed them to dogs, Mu Qingtong used the Sickle Calamity’s scythe to repeatedly torture the Third-stage Spirit Master, inflicting a cumulative 100 tons of pain on the target. You gained 10 points of strength.]
[The Fourth-stage Sickle Calamity could not bear such humiliation, falling to its knees and begging for mercy, only asking the human master to spare it. However, Mu Qingtong continued to shear off its sickle blades one by one as weapons, rapidly slaughtering the swarming minor enemies in the corridor. You gained 10 points of strength.]
[Using a special method to gather ten Three-eyed Sickle Calamities in a confined space, briefly restoring spirit pressure with the Fate Stone before using Thunderstorm to slaughter them with fingertip lightning. Inflicted a cumulative 30 tons of pain on the group targets. Under the effect of Concentric Lightning, the pain was amplified tenfold, inflicting 300 tons of pain. The group targets died, and you gained 30 points of strength.]
[Current Strength: 949]
His strength value was soaring rapidly, about to break the 1000 mark. Xia Feng and Freya had also quietly reached the second floor.
“Buzzzzzzzzzzzzz————”
Just then, the ground trembled slightly for about two seconds, and then began to shake violently. After a while, it returned to normal, and the crowd on the first floor looked around in confusion.
On the second floor, in the core laboratory.
“Who is this suicidal idiot?” Berna’s face was grim as he stared intently at the surveillance screen covering the walls. The screen was completely black, indicating that all the cameras in the underground laboratory had been destroyed. In just a few minutes, the mysterious person had completely ransacked the underground laboratory. It was truly outrageous.
However, although Berna was somewhat puzzled and annoyed, he no longer cared about these losses. Because the Enlightenment Mark was about to be activated, and he could soon begin the enlightenment process for this A-class Spirit Robe! If it were someone else, obtaining an A-class spirit paper might only lead to frustration, as they wouldn’t be able to learn it at all. But he was different; he had a way to quickly learn an A-class Spirit Robe! Of course, his talent was only considered decent; learning a B-grade Spirit Robe was fine, but with this talent alone, he’d likely never learn an A-grade Spirit Robe in his lifetime. However, his special ability lay in possessing an extremely rare spirit artifact that could only be used once in a lifetime. With the artifact’s ability, learning an A-class Spirit Robe would be effortless! Furthermore, it would be very fast!
Tapping his knuckles on the table, Berna glanced at the three motionless hulks standing to the side. These three men were easily two and a half meters tall, with sparse black hair covering their foreheads, wearing only black loincloths and possessing bodies filled with explosive muscles. The faces of the three hulks were etched with black serial numbers. For example, the leader’s arm bore the marking [5-104].
“Send the high-level Calamity Spirit Pearl to Lord Xize,” Berna said. The high-level Calamity Spirit Pearl contained terrifyingly pure Calamity Spirit Fluid, having almost exhausted all spirit materials and Calamity Beasts accumulated over nearly twenty years to evolve into a high-level Calamity Spirit Pearl, making it extremely precious.
“Send it now?” Number 104 asked with a deep voice, puzzled. “Lord Envoy, the intruder in the underground laboratory has not been dealt with. Are you sure you don’t need us to handle this person?”
“No need.” Berna waved his hand dismissively. “Compared to the losses in the laboratory, the high-level Calamity Spirit Pearl is the top priority.” Lord Xize was extremely fond of that shapeshifted Calamity Demoness Hippogriff and was likely impatient. Only a high-level Calamity Spirit Pearl could possibly suppress the terrifying Calamity Force on the Calamity Demoness’s body. “Deliver it to Lord Xize as quickly as possible,” Berna handed the silver box containing the Calamity Spirit Pearl to the hulking man, his voice cold and deep. “This item is extremely important and cannot be lost!”
“Yes!” The three hulks nodded solemnly. Number 104 carefully placed the silver box into a briefcase and strode out of the core laboratory.
*
“What happened?”
The ground was still buzzing and vibrating. Freya keenly detected a fleeting electric current underfoot, seemingly conducted from below. She was bewildered, wondering what exactly Miss Q was doing underground. Hadn’t they agreed on a stealthy infiltration? “Are you sure she can escape with all this commotion?” Freya asked doubtfully.
Xia Feng coughed and waved his hand, indicating it was no big deal. “It’s fine, this is Miss Q’s style of action. She’s just helping us attract the enemy forces. We need to do our stealth infiltration and make sure we’re not discovered!”
“Shh—there’s someone ahead.” At this moment, Freya stopped and pulled Xia Feng into the shadows of a corner. They saw three hulking figures, each at least two and a half meters tall, emerging from a tall doorway. The hulking man in the middle held a black briefcase, and the three of them headed in another direction, gradually moving further away.
“Thump thump—”
“Thump thump thump—”
But upon seeing the briefcase, the Calamity Demon Heart suddenly began to beat rapidly. Xia Feng’s expression froze. He could clearly sense that the object in the briefcase seemed capable of repairing his heart?! The moment Xia Feng’s surprised thought arose, the briefcase suddenly began to buzz and vibrate, and fragments of metal exploded outwards.
Swish—
A jet-black bead, leaving a trail of flowing light, shot out from the smoke and dust, heading directly towards Xia Feng, as if a swallow returning to its nest, excitedly throwing itself into his embrace.
Xia Feng: “?”
The three hulking figures suddenly turned their heads in shock: “?!!!”
