The temporary isolation room remained standing, but the atmosphere in the theater room relaxed significantly after the people were made to know that Xingfu had awakened, and that he was out of danger.
Now that he no longer needed to worry about his own safety, Peneus moved on to thinking about the best ways to repair his damaged relationship with Xingfu. While it was true that he was a victim of circumstance himself, it was equally undeniable that his role had been pivotal in the near loss of Xingfu’s life.
Naturally he was seething with hatred for the mastermind behind this. The same thing could happen again as long as the culprit remained undiscovered, and he was fully aware that he and his men could’ve died right on this ship if Xingfu hadn’t made a miraculous recovery. There was no way in hell he was reliving this ever again.
Xingfu didn’t exit the isolation room immediately after confirming to his doctor that he felt perfectly healthy. Instead, he sent Zhuo Xing and Du Hong away so that he could grill Cillin about Genya. The hunter only answered some of his questions though. He explained the nature of his relationship with Genya to Xingfu and told him that Genya wouldn’t be returning soon.
“When will he able to visit us?” Xingfu asked. It was the most pressing question in his mind right now.
“Depends. GAL is pretty unstable right now, and his return will only worsen the chaos.”
Xingfu raised his eyebrows at that. “Is the Gen Family really that big?”
“It is. But I can’t tell you anything about them right now. Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll explain everything to you all when he finally returns.” Cillin had no intentions of revealing the Mist Bodhisattva Empire’s existence as of now.
Xingfu took a moment to glance at the medical instrument he was connected to, more specifically the gene rank displayed on the screen. Back in the days, he would be assaulted by waves of weakness and discomfort the moment he tried anything strenuous. Now though,he felt like he had an infinite amount of energy and spirit to spend, and he could barely stop himself from dancing in excitement.
From his conversation with Xingfu. Cillin learned that Xingfu’s younger sister, Gen Xingji often spent her time with with his aunt—Prisa, the Star Rank Hunter—and that his father helped the “Queen” to manage Golden Beginning. Until just now, Xingfu possessed the weakest constitution out of his father, sister and himself. Even his sister, who was an F-rank human like him, was slightly stronger than he was. It was one of the reasons she was allowed to travel all over the galaxy with Prisa.
“When is my next injection?”
“That depends on how well your body adapts to its new state. If everything goes well, you should be able to undergo the injection very soon. If not, it might take years or even decades before you can receive your second injection.”
“So you mean it’s all up to me? I’m fine with that. If I don’t even have the ability to master my own body, then it’ll be a waste to upgrade my genes anymore than this.” Xingfu knew his limits well, not to mention that he had spent his whole life being patient with his own body. He didn’t mind being patient a bit longer. “What’s your business in Sector S, by the way? If there’s one place I can be of help to you, it’ll be Sector S.”
Xingfu wasn’t boasting. Sector S was currently under the control of three major factions, and no foreign power—not even the ones who shared a partnership the three major factions—could stick their hands in the proverbial cookie jar right now. Take Peneus and Fen Yuzuo for example, there was a high chance they would be smashed to shithereeen if they had tried to enter Sector S’s space without Xingfu.
“I’m heading there to find something your grandfather left behind before he left. It might contain records of your father and other things.” Cillin didn’t plan to keep this a secret from Xingfu. He would be able to accomplish this mission a lot quicker with Xingfu’s help anyway.
“Then I’ll help. It’s not like I have anything to do anyway. Before my genes became better, all I could do is to hide myself in a corner and avoid drawing attention. Now though? I want to explore as much as I can. Heck, even in Sector S there are many places I haven’t been to yet.” Even in Fire Phoenix and Flying Snake, there were a lot of people who recognized Xingfu. They wouldn’t stop him from going where he pleased as long as it wasn’t too confidential.
“Sure. When that’s done, I’m going to meet with the ‘Queen’. Your grandfather left some things for her and your father. As for you and your sister’s gift, I suggest that you ask him yourselves after you met him in person. He still didn’t know you exist after all.”
Xingfu pouted but didn’t dwell on something so trivial. A pause later, he asked curiously, “So, what did my grandfather want to give my father and grandmother?”
“Do you want to see?”
Cillin took out the bracelet under Xingfu’s expectant gaze. It was a royal bracelet that was almost the same as the one Gen Xingming’s father was wearing right now. The unique pattern marking someone as a key member of the royal bloodline was engraved on it.
A multitude of thoughts passed through Xingfu’s mind in this moment. He could see that the bracelet was exceptional. He could feel how rare and precious it was even without touching it with his own hands. The materials alone were so rare that it was almost priceless.
“This is his gift to your father,” Cillin said. The reason he showed this to Xingfu was to dispel the last grain of doubt in his mind.
Xingfu pointed at the pattern after examining the bracelet closely. “This looks slightly different from the one I’ve seen before.”
“This clan crest is only available to members of the imperial clan, or very close friends of said members. If I’m not mistaken, the one you saw is worn by a normal Gen clansmen.”
Xingfu exclaimed in pleasant realization. “Huh. This means that that cheap grandpa of mine is pretty important in the Gen Family, right?”
Cillin nodded and put away the bracelet. He had already achieved his objective, and he didn’t want to reveal it too frequently until it was passed into the hands of its intended recipients.
“Oh right, do you know who’s the person who tried to kill you? The hypnosis you were put under was extremely potent. You might not have awakened if your genes weren’t different from the normal person,” Cillin asked.
“I don’t know.” Killing intent flashed across Xingfu’s eyes, but the young man was able to maintain a cool head. “The culprit might not have been targeting me specifically. It could be that the culprit noticed that our friends and us combined posed a threat to their interests, and that killing me would put a stop this partnership.”
Cillin nodded. He was glad to see that Xingfu didn’t let his emotions get to him and viewed at the problem objectively.
After they left the isolation room, Xingfu called upon his acting skills and played the appearance of someone who just recovered from a terrible illness. No one besides Zhuo Xing and Du Hong knew about his gene improvement, and he told them to keep it a secret even from the “Queen” herself. He planned to reveal this to his family after Cillin found the item he was looking for, and until then he had no intention in painting a target behind his own back.
When Peneus anxiously inquired Xingfu about his intentions, not only did Xingfu not blame him for what had happened, he actually went to great lengths to console the young master. He promised that their cooperation would continue just like before, but he also urged Peneus to catch the culprit who orchestrated his assassination as soon as possible.
Fen Yuzuo couldn’t help but feel like Xingfu had changed a little. He still looked as sickly as ever, but he no longer leaked gloominess like a bottle of depression. In the past, his eyes would be brimming with negative emotions even when his lips were drawn into a smile. Now though, they looked a lot brighter than they used to be.
Cillin acquired a star map of Sector S from Xingfu. In GAL, if you want to obtain the most accurate and detailed star map possible of a certain section or sections of the galaxy, the best thing to do would be to inquire someone who served the power who owned them. In this case, Cillin got lucky by saving the one person who could give him the best star map of Sector S possible to search his target planet.
Ever since GAL descended into chaos, the entire Sector S had been embroiled in a power shuffle. So far, all foreign forces who tried to interfere with this war had suffered tremendously for their troubles. Flying Snake, Fire Phoenix and Golden Beginning had cleaned out the entire Sector S and during this process all the prisons in Sector S from the lowest to the highest had been destroyed. In fact, some planets were destroyed during the scrambles and power shuffles, so new territories and areas had to be redefined.
This was why the pre-chaos star maps and post-chaos star maps looked very different from each other. Xingfu didn’t even have the old star maps of Sector S, only the latest one.
Obviously, this made it harder for Cillin to search for the planet Genya specified. He had to calculate planetary layouts and orbits, borrow a bunch of incomplete, localized pre-chaos star maps from the crew, and merge them with the ones he remembered before he could even begin his search.
For convenience sake, Xingfu prepared a room for Cillin to stay and provided him with the equipment he needed to conduct his search. At the same time, Cillin asked Moon and the others to find as many old star maps as they could to pinpoint the target planet.
Meanwhile, Wheeze was doing exactly nada as usual, and since Cillin hadn’t gone back it decided that it might as well stick with him and escape the responsibility of having to clean the crumbs it littered all over the Eleventh Squad’s starship. Wheeze’s decision was also aided by the fact that Xingfu prepared a lot of food for it, although its mouth wasn’t nearly as loose as it used to be. Now that it had both power and support, it was no longer scared about being experimented upon by GAL’s mad scientists anymore. To put it in its own words, it had helpers, and it would kill anyone and everyone who covets it.
Unable to pry any information from Cillin’s mouth, Xingfu moved onto his next target and tried to bribe the gluttonous cat with food. However, as gluttonous it might be, its mouth was sealed as tight as a drum. It was almost as if it had set up a program to remind itself to shut up right before it was about to slip up.
Wheeze looked stupid, but it wasn’t actually stupid. Xingfu was deeply disappointed by his failure to pry any valuable information from Wheeze’s mouth, but at least they were now closer than before. It was mostly the food doing the talking though. The little bastard probably wouldn’t even look at him if he didn’t offer it food.
After a careful investigation, comparison and analysis later, Cillin narrowed his search to one particular area. Coincidentally, the area around the planet was largely unchanged, and the planet situated at a former prison sector. Even better, Cillin had been to the target planet before.
A long time ago, Cillin and Lung and rescued the “Little Flying Snake” Qi Geyou and his two aides, Snarker and Serpenter. The planet they had delivered them to was exactly the planet he was looking for.
The target planet was located in Flying Snake’s territory, and that hadn’t changed to this day. It was possible that Genya had hidden his possessions there because it was a place Golden Beginning didn’t have easy access to. From this, Cillin could infer that Golden Beginning’s voice wasn’t fully united at the time.
These days, Qi Geyou had greater authority than before, and barring some incredible circumstances he was expected to become the official leader of Flying Snake in the near future. It so happened that the planet they were flying to was under Qi Geyou’s jurisdiction as well.
The defenders of the planet immediately entered high alert when they spotted the unfamiliar ships. When they saw the insignia of Golden Beginning on Xingfu’s ship though, they immediately informed their higher-ups to send a suitable negotiator.
“Feel free to recruit them anyone you like,” Xingfu said with a smile while they waited for Flying Snake’s reply. “Ever since the prisons in Sector S were destroyed, every force had conducted a recruitment drive of sorts. Feel free to do yours if you happen to encounter an unpolished gem or two who slipped through the net. I would recommend getting someone from the prisons as they are usually quite powerful.”
“Of course. If I find someone suitable, I’ll do my best to add them to my crew.”
The response came quickly, and one of the negotiators even turned out to be a familiar face. It was the brawny fighter, Snarker.
Snarker gave them permission to enter after hearing from Xingfu that he was here to find someone. He didn’t really have a good reason to turn them away anyway especially since they were cooperating right now. It wouldn’t be incorrect to claim that the stability of the entire Sector S lies on the friendship of its three major powers.
They parked their starships at the space station orbiting the planet. Then, Xingfu and Cillin split up, brought their own men and flew their own spaceplanes to the planet.
Snarker was already waiting at the designated landing spot with increased security. It was because he didn’t want anything to happen to Golden Beginning’s precious young master. His head would be on the chopping block if anything bad were to happen during his watch, not to mention that Qi Geyou’s promotion might be affected as well.
Snarker’s full attention was on Xingfu when the young master showed up. Then he looked sideways and saw something that caused his facial muscle to twitch involuntarily.
The cat was a lot fatter than he remembered, but no amount of fat was enough to cover up its punchable eyes. Snarker had seen many cats in his life, but there was only one that made him feel like throwing a punch or two on first meeting.
At the same time, Snarker quickly realized that the gray cat was sitting on the shoulder of someone he didn’t recognize. Who is this guy?
Unfortunately, he didn’t have the time to puzzle all the mysteries. After trading pleasantries with Xingfu, he led them to a place where they could rest their feet.
There were a lot more tall and impressive buildings on the planet since Cillin’s last visit. It looked like Flying Snake’s ascension of power had done a lot of good for the planet.
Snarker had brought them to a high class hotel. It was a special place where only the higher-ups of Flying Snake or VIPs like Xingfu could enter.
“So, who are you looking for, young master Fu? Assuming that they’re on this planet, we should be able to save you some time,” Snarker started. It sounded polite, but the underlying meaning was clear: tell us now so we can find you your person and wrap this up quickly.
Xingfu looked at Cillin. The hunter was the only one here who knew the specifics.
But before Cillin could say anything, Wheeze complained, “Why isn’t there any fish biscuits in this room? Is this how you treat your saviors, hmm?”
Snarker’s face turned stiff for a moment. I fucking knew this cat would be a difficult guest! After ordering his men to bring up some fish biscuits, he asked, “Where’s Cillin? Is he away for something?”
Now that he knew who Lung truly was, he knew that the young master normally didn’t make time for hunters. He was also pretty busy as of late and shouldn’t have the time to visit Sector S.
Wheeze picked up a fish biscuit with its paw, dropped it in its mouth, closed its eyes and took its time chewing it into tiny, digestible bits. A long while later, it finally tilted its head and pointed at the person sitting next to it. “Do you need an eye check? He’s right in front of you, man.”
It took a bit of explanation from Cillin, but Snarker eventually confirmed that the unfamiliar hunter sitting opposite to him was Cillin himself. He immediately reported this to Qi Geyou. Cillin and Lung were the ones who lent them a helping hand during their most dangerous times, and Snarker never forgot a favor. The cat though, well, maybe not.
Qi Geyou couldn’t show up in person he was currently busy doing some things on another planet. As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. After catching up with Cillin for a bit via video call, he asked Snarker to do everything in his power to find the person Cillin was looking for and hung up.
First, Cillin asked for a map of the planet and tried searching for the location Genya told him. However, a lot had changed since Genya was last here, and the older the area the bigger the changes. So, Cillin requested to see the older maps of the planet. Had Cillin been anyone else, Snarker would’ve rejected the request right away. After all, some of these stuff were tied to their org’s inner secrets. But since Qi Geyou told him to help Cillin in any way possible, and he still owed Cillin his life, Snarker obliged without hesitation.
Xingfu kept his emotions well hidden, but in truth he was shocked by how amenable Snarker was. Although Cillin had told him about the time he saved Qi Geyou and his two aides, this went beyond even repaying a life debt. He was certain that Cillin and Qi Geyou shared other dealings besides their current one, or to his knowledge the latter would never allow Snarker to reveal maps that potentially contained certain hidden data and strategical layouts.
Cillin pointed at a particular location on the map and asked, “Is this still a residential area?”
Snarker took a look and shook his head regretfully. “It’s been rebuilt for other purposes since twenty years ago at least. Why don’t you just tell me who you’re searching for? I might be able to find out their current location.”
“Works for me.” Cillin turned off the map and said, “The person I’m looking for is called Hara.”
Snarker was about to enter the name into his communicator when his hands suddenly froze in mid-air. He turned toward Cillin and asked slowly, “I’m sorry, who?”
“Hara. I’m looking for Hara,” Cillin repeated slowly and clearly.
This time, even Xingfu wore an odd expression on his face.
“By Hara, you mean that plump man who likes to smile and roll his tongue when he speaks?!” blurted Snarker while staring at Cillin.
Cillin recalled his conversation with Genya for a moment and confirmed that that was how Genya had described the person who held his possessions. So he nodded and said, “Yes, I’m sure.”
Xingfu exclaimed in astonishment, “Food King Hara is holding the goods?”
