Chapter 1108 Aquamarine’s Warship
The Valley of Wind!
Two days later, Xia Fei arrived at Aquamarine’s legendary old lair! “There’s no mistake! I’ll never forget this place for as long as I live — The Valley of Wind! My lord and I only located this mythical place after much grueling effort,” Radix expressed in a shrill voice, pointing at the colorful galaxies displayed on the screen.
A hint of indignance and sorrow could be felt in his voice. After all, while their adventure to the Valley of Wind had been a success, it was also what had changed the fate of Radix, Hosu, and Wistful Valley.
*Rumble*
The ship instantly began swaying the comment it got near one of the galaxies, almost as if they were entering the eye of the storm.
Xia Fei was mildly taken aback, muttering, “What a powerful gravitational fluctuation. Though this galaxy appears to be peaceful, it actually contains a frightening force. If I wasn’t informed by you beforehand, I’m afraid we would be in a touch of trouble.”
Radix replied enthusiastically, “The gravitational fluctuation is indeed very troublesome. Unlike a cosmic storm, it’s invisible to the naked eye and intangible. This is a standard dark energy pulse. We had also been given a huge fright when we had ventured here back then.”
Xia Fei nodded. Because he had made the necessary preparations before coming here, the warship was able to bear the gravitational fluctuations and remain stable for now. Though it was a bumpy ride, they still made it, safe and sound, in the end.
“We’ll be entering Aquamarine’s sphere of influence in ten minutes. It covers a total of two planets. We were in a rush last time, so we only managed to investigate the smaller one,” Radix pointed into the distance.
Xia Fei furrowed his brows as he observed the circuits onboard. Following several strong gravitational pulses, a good majority of the electronics had started to fail, so Xia Fei could only rely on his two eyes to look around, as all he got from the radar was visual snow.
“Okay. Let’s search that planet that you guys went to. I surmise that it’ll take thirty hours for our competitions to arrive; that should be enough time for us to do what we came here for,” Xia Fei said solemnly.
*Whoosh*
Xia Fei adjusted the direction and piloted the Diamond Star toward a planet filled with ring belts. This planet was not in the standard spherical shape but looked more like a watermelon someone had taken several bites of, making for a very odd shape.
Fuchen had not said a word throughout the entire ordeal. Instead, he swept his gaze across the ship’s reinforced hull from the window; there was a hint of worry reflected in his eyes. Xia Fei was definitely a madman, pushing the limits of this ship’s potential with his super strong judgment.
Even ignoring the fact that he had pulled everything off while maintaining the warship’s top speed the entire time, Xia Fei had still plunged this ship deep into a Dark Matter Particle Storm, causing the once beautiful and sleek armor plating of the Diamond Star to become filled with uneven dents, looking more like a reef that had been battered by the sea waves for so many years. How was there even half the air of luxury that it once exuded?
“With the armor plating already in such a shape, how will it withstand the return trip later?” Fuchen asked.
Xia Fei nodded. “That’ll depend on our luck. If we pass through a similar Dark Matter Particle Storm on our way back, then the ship will definitely fail to hold out.”
Fuchen was rendered speechless. Xia Fei had spoken so casually! Definitely fail to hold out? At the end of the day, it just meant that he had not considered their return trip at all!
Xia Fei did not think that he was in the wrong. “Because we were in a rush to get here, we took the risk of traveling through the eye of the storm. I’ll do everything I can to avoid that on our return journey. Actually, our biggest enemy is still that battlecruiser, so our main problem is still how to avoid getting into a head-on battle with them.
“This warship looks a lot better now, looking like a ship that has weathered a storm. It was originally too pretty, like a toy, and it’s not lowkey enough.”
Fuchen shook his head. Xia Fei’s logic was always shock-inducing, but after some careful consideration, what he had said made a lot of sense.
A glance at a ship with not a single battle scar and it would be obvious to anyone that it was no more than a rich man’s toy. Xia Fei had complained a time or two about its conspicuousness before, but in just a few days to their dangerous voyage, the ship had been through, so much so that there was no longer an urgent need to refit it. It had truly become a peculiar yet inconspicuous warship.
*Whoosh*
The warship swiftly landed on a planet’s surface. Though Xia Fei had managed to leave that battlecruiser behind, the threat it represented still existed, so Xia Fei needed to complete his search and leave in what little time he had.
“Wait for me here. The warship’s radar search on this planet has located dozens of questionable locations. I am fast, so I’ll take at most an hour to complete this search. Rather than splitting up, I’ll act as a scout while you’ll be my support. You can also protect the important warship while you’re at it, since without it, we’ll have a very hard time leaving,” Xia Fei told Fuchen.
The important warship? Fuchen frowned as he gazed at the Diamond Star, which looked like it had seen a lifetime of unwelcome experiences. If the Treasure family were to see how this ship looked now, they would surely burst into tears.
Xia Fei directed strength to his legs and disappeared with Furball in his bosom sans a trace.
After Xia Fei had gone far away, Fuchen lightly bruised his finger on his bracelet, saying, “Come out. Xia Fei’s gone. You can check who’s on that distant planet.”
Wraith nodded nonchalantly. “Since you knew that there’s someone on that other planet, why didn’t you tell Xia Fei? Are you sure that it’sfine?”
Fuchen replied softly, “I feel that the aura of that person is something I’m familiar with; head over and look first before we do anything else. Don’t make any sudden commotion, either; Xia Fei’s awareness is pretty sharp.”
“Understood,” Wraith answered.
*Whoosh*
A single weak soul beam shot off into space!
Wraith, Fuchen’s exclusive soul, was a little peculiar when he took action. The energy pulses he gave off were different from Radix’s as well, almost as if there was this greater gloominess around Wraith.
They were both Immortal Souls, yet why did Radix and Wraith give off such distinctively different types of aura? It looked like everyone had their own secrets to hide, and Fuchen was no different.
Dashing off from one location to another at a speed of eight million meters per second, Xia Fei was like a blur of light. Every suspicious location that the ship’s search had indicated was investigated by Xia Fei while maintaining his astonishing speed.
“This place is strange. It’s clearly an underground river, yet heavy metal can be detected from it,” said Xia Fei as he came to a halt and inspected his surroundings.
All he saw was a murky river around fifteen kilometers underground, like a meandering, long water pipe. Its surface was empty, but he could hear swift water rushing below.
The air was damp and chilly, with several strange-looking bats flying off in fright when they saw this sudden intruder. They were very easily dispatched in mid-air by Radix, who controlled the fiendish blade, Nirvana.
“Ocular Cognition!”
*Zing*
Xia Fei’s eyes abruptly shone, and then light shot out from them!
The darkness no longer became a visual obstruction, and he could even see into the dark depths of water!
Several seconds later, the corners of Xia Fei’s mouth curled into a slight smirk as he said in excitement, “Ah, so that’s why heavy metal seems to be coming from it. To think that there’d be something like that at the bottom of the river!”
*Splash*
Sans any hesitation, Xia Fei dove into the water.
Though the water flowed with urgency, this was no different from a game to him. He moved his two arms in tandem as he swam through the hundred-meter depth to reach the bottom of the river.
The riverbed was smooth, with several silver pieces of metal lying on its floor. It did not budge at all no matter how fast the water flowed.
“This must be some supergrade heavy metal alloy, or else it would’ve been washed away long ago! After all, the speed that this water flows is by no means slow,” Radix exclaimed.
Xia Fei went and picked up a silver piece of metal, which was about the size of his nail. Though it was just a small piece, it was heavier than expected.
“Do you know what sort of metal alloy this is?” Xia Fei asked.
“I’m uncertain. If an artificer like you doesn’t know what it is, how can someone like me be any better?” Radix shrugged.
Xia Fei said after some thought, “A metal of such density must be worth a lot. Let’s collect every piece first.” Radix had no idea whether he should laugh or cry. Thinking that Xia Fei’s greed had reared its head again, he said, “That’s a waste of time. With how long this river stretches, you’ll have to spend quite some time picking everything up even thoughyou’re a speedster. Why don’t we visit the other locations first before returning here later, once we have more time to spare?”
Radix’s fear of the Valley of Wind was ingrained in his bones, causing him to be very cautious.
Xia Fei thought otherwise. “Trust me; it won’t take long, for I have Peacock Blue!”
*Rumble*
Xia Fei suddenly accelerated while underwater, and Peacock Blue’s thirteen blades of grass quickly sliced their way in the water. These huge blades of grass were like extremely nimble mechanical arms as they gathered all the strange metal alloy pieces. With Peacock Blue’s help, the speed at which Xia fei collected increased by severalfold! In no time at all, he had managed to collect several dozen cubic meters of said metal.
“I see light ahead! This place connects to the last location noted by the AI sweep!” Xia Fei said.
The river was not pitch-black, and light was coming from somewhere ahead. There was a loud roar, then this river seemingly came to an end.
Xia Fei kicked himself off from the riverbed and went spearing forward like a swordfish.
This was an incomparably huge underground chasm, like a deep well that buried everything, horizonless.
The river water naturally fell off the edge after reaching a point deep into the chasm. There was not just a single riverbed in the chasm; instead, there were countless inlets, which formed numerous waterfalls. “So there’s another cave here! Strange… Why did the sensors onboard the ship fail to detect this place?” Radix exclaimed.
Xia Fei stopped in mid-air and touched a nearby wall before saying, “Heavy metal surrounds us, so the sensors only picked up the strange heavy metal, nothing else. That’s to be expected. The key here is that this cave is far too tidy, almost as if someone intentionally dug it out, and that’s a little strange.”
Radix was stunned. “True. There’s a line here that extends further down, almost like a chute track.”
Xia Fei frowned. “We’ll have to go down and make sense of this no matter what!”
*Swoosh*
Flipping over, Xia Fei kicked off the wall and sent himself bounding downward!
He went diving head-first into this huge chasm, which neither he nor Radix had any idea just how deep it went.
“There’s something in the depths! Something huge!” Xia Fei blurted out.
Something akin to a huge ocean was in the chasm. Xia Fei used his Ocular Cognition technique and instantly spotted the existence of a large metallic object.
“That’s a damaged spaceship! From it’s model, it definitely doesn’t belong to the Alpha Universe, for it has never had such a mega dense alloy before!” Radix exclaimed, clearly excited.
Adding this chasm and that spaceship in the water, it was not difficult for Xia Fei to surmise everything A long time ago, a warship had crash-landed on this planet, creating this huge crater. As time passed, the crater got blocked by rocks and soil from above, sealing this place up. As for the straight underground inlets around them, they were caused by that metal alloy scattered everywhere following the crash-landing, blasting out a passage when it pierced through the rocks.
“A warship not from the Alpha Universe, hidden in Aquamarine’s old lair? Xia Fei, you’ve struck rich! We found Aquamarine’s warship, the one from her universe!” Radix was thrilled when he added two and two together.
