Xia Fei finally understood that these young men were the rumored princelings of the Adjudicator Union. Their parents all held high positions in the organization; if they were not the heads of departments, then they were elders of the enforcement committee. In fact, Bean’s father was the President of the Adjudicator Union, Baines!
In the power hierarchy of the Adjudicator Union, at the very top were the mysterious Ten Great Elders. Qin Mang had once been among these ten; even after he resigned, he still wielded unfathomable power.
After that were the President and the four vice presidents, in addition to thirteen elders of the enforcement committee. Normally, the enforcement committee was chaired by the department heads; Thuram happened to be one of them.
With such powerful parents backing them, it was no wonder Bean’s group of youths could become bronze or silver members in the union, and it was no wonder they could be so rampant. After all, these people perfectly fitted the saying ‘when a man ascends to the heavens, his dog and chickens come along with him’.
These princelings did not care that they were in jail and even felt the experience to be fresh and new. They quickly cozied up to Xia Fei, and since he was older than all of them, these rich good-for-nothings called him Big bro Xia Fei.
These youths each had a nickname. There was little Bean, tough-faced Hammer, and scrawny Monkey, who was acknowledged by the rest as their leader.
Bored, Monkey took out a box of pearls in various colors from his spatial ring and asked the rest, “Why don’t we play a game with my meteor ball? Big bro Xia Fei, do you know how to play?”
These rich boys were right at the age where they loved playing around, so all of them agreed. Xia Fei shook his head. “I don’t know. How do you play that? I’ve never tried it before.”
“It’s very simple. These meteors are controlled by an intelligent system to move around within a certain range. You just need to catch them,” Bean explained.
Monkey threw the variously colored meteors in the box to the ground. The moment they landed, they expanded to about the size of a fist. Xia Fei presumed that they were outfitted with some sort of air compression function. Once activated, they would automatically fill themselves up with air.
The twelve rainbow meteors did not move very quickly at the start, but after a minute, they began moving even faster than a hoverbike, leaving behind afterimages and appearing like rainbow comets shooting across the sky as they flew about.
Astonishingly, these meteors were extremely cunning. They deftly wove their way through the pack like mud fish.
“Start!” Bean excitedly shouted. The members of the group displayed their best skills to try and catch them. Alas, the colored meteors were like fairies, elusively flitting about as they sped away. Not only did the youths fail to catch any, they made laughingstocks of themselves in their attempts, too.
“If they’re slightly faster and more numerous, these would be perfect for training my agility,” Xia Fei stroked his chin and said.
Phantom replied, “True. I wonder which company designed them? Their movement is so flighty that it reminds of Crafty Approach.”
Xia Fei agreed with this opinion. He originally took this for a children’s toy, but when these colored meteors were activated, he realized how wrong he was. Whether it was their reaction speed or movements, they were very bizarre. Moreover, these meteors possessed high intelligence. At times, they would intentionally provoke someone to chase them, even matching their speed to their pursuers.
*Whoosh!*
A blue one swayed in front of Xia Fei, going back and forth like a bell. It was as if it wanted him to catch it.
Xia Fei found this interesting and reached out with his right hand to take it. His speed was already at the intermediate stage of the Star River rank, and his hand moved as swiftly as lightning, yet the moment Xia Fei thought of taking the meteor, it rapidly flew away.
‘Did it sense that I wanted to catch it?’ Xia Fei muttered in confusion.
It was no wonder these rich scions were so happy. Xia Fei realized that this was not simply a game about catching colored balls. In this game, it required movement techniques, skills, and intelligence!
There was only one method to find out the truth behind these colored meteors: personally practice with them!
…
The twelve colored meteors were finally caught. Xia Fei alone had caught ten of them, but this extremely exhausting game had even tired out Xia Fei a bit.
Oddly, these colored balls seemed to be able to tell when these people were tired. Before everyone lost their patience, they suddenly slowed down and began moving around more clumsily. This seemed intentional.
Bizarre movement techniques, incredible intelligence, greater agility than speed ability users—the meteor ball had left a deep impression on Xia Fei and had drawn his interest.
“Monkey, where did you buy your meteor ball? I want to buy a set myself.” Xia Fei lit a cigarette as he inquired.
“You can’t buy my meteor ball anywhere. My dad got it from some ancient ruins. During this trade fair, I plan to trade it for some fun things,” Monkey replied.
Xia Fei was speechless. A random item these youths took out was a precious relic of the ancient civilization. From this, one could see how well-off their families were.
“Big bro Xia Fei, what is that you’re smoking?” Bean tilted his head and asked. “Can I try it?”
Xia Fei swept a finger across his spatial ring, taking out two packs of Hongtashan and throwing them over. All of the youths were curious and rushed to start smoking as Xia Fei had when he was in school. Alas, the cigarettes were too strong, and soon the room was filled with sounds of coughing. They threw down the cigarettes and indicated that they no longer wanted anything to do with them.
“Monkey, since you plan to trade your meteor ball for something, why not trade with me?” Xia Fei asked.
Monkey nodded. “Alright, big bro Xia Fei. What sort of things do you have to trade?”
Xia Fei thought it over and proceeded to take out the black Lifeseeker Tri-dagger from his spatial ring. He then began to speak in an enigmatic tone. “Let me tell you that this thing isn’t something you can get anywhere. In the alliance is a mysterious sect of assassins. This sect has no name, nor do its disciples. They live in the darkness, ready at any time to take the heads of others…”
…
Xia Fei’s ability to tell stories was the real deal. He described the Assassin Sect as the most enigmatic place in the world, and the Lifeseeker Tri-dagger was the item passed down by the sect masters through generations. In short, the story of the Lifeseeker Tri-dagger had been exaggerated to the utmost, the process of retrieving it as dangerous as it could be. It left the youths slack-jawed and wide-eyed, the more cowardly ones almost breaking into tears.
As expected, once Monkey was done listening to the story, he quickly decided to trade with Xia Fei. Xia Fei frowned as if trading the Lifeseeker Tri-dagger for this legacy of an ancient civilization was a huge loss to him before he reluctantly agreed.
“What nameless sect! The Assassin Sect has a name, alright?” Phantom was somewhat angry.
Xia Fei smiled. “If I didn’t make the story more fantastical, how could I trade the Lifeseeker Tri-dagger for the meteor ball?”
Phantom nodded. “While the Lifeseeker Tri-dagger is decent, this meteor ball is a precious relic of an ancient civilization. The Assassin Sect produces nine Lifeseeker Tri-daggers every year for its disciples to use, but there may be only one set of the meteor ball. In short, you’ve made a huge profit from this trade.”
“The Trade Carnival,” Xia Fei muttered to himself. “This could be considered a decent start. Maybe there will be more surprises over the next fifteen days of the trade fair.”
Soon, people from the Adjudicator Union came to pick up the rich good-for-nothings, and Xia Fei boldly left with them. The guards did not say a word.
It was clear that none of these princelings was someone who could be lightly provoked. Turning a blind eye to them was the wisest decision.
As expected, Bean went over to the yellow-faced man and cursed him out. The man said nothing, only kept his head lowered, and accepted his unfortunate luck.
Once they were out of the spaceport guard station, the group prepared to go and rest in the lounge. Bean invited Xia Fei to stay with them. After all that messing around, the youths had grown very close to him, and Xia Fei did not find anything wrong with accepting their invitation.
…
Swallow Island was one of the several thousand islands of the planet, Thousand Islands. It was so named because of the large number of sea swallows nesting on its cliffs.
All of the hotels on the planet had already been booked out by the rich and imperious Adjudicator Union, and guests only needed to show their passes to take a room. In other words, if one wanted, one could choose to stay on a different island for each day of the event.
In Whitebird Hotel, Xia Fei took a shower in his room. Just when he was about to research the meteor ball, Bean knocked at his door.
“Big bro Xia Fei, if not for you, we would’ve been bullied around by those Monastics today. We brothers had a talk and decided that we wanted to invite you for a drink tonight. You must come!” Bean boldly said.
Xia Fei chuckled. “There’s no need for brothers to be so polite to one another.”
He had originally been planning to stay and eat something in the room, but Bean was stubbornly persistent. Xia Fei had no choice but to change his clothes and follow him to the dining room.
The twenty-some youths had taken the largest table in the dining room and were feasting away. Xia Fei glanced around and discovered two extremely familiar people by the window. Taking a closer look, he discovered that they were Li Mo and his father, Li Guan.
Li Mo noticed Xia Fei and coldly snorted, turning aside his pale face. Tossing his fork onto the table, he lifted his wine cup and took two swigs. It was obvious that he was unwilling to stay under the same roof as Xia Fei.
The sharp-eyed Monkey saw this and whispered, “Who’s that rascal? Why does it seem as if he doesn’t like you?”
Xia Fei casually replied, “That’s the young master of Planet Conglomerate’s Li family. He and I have had a few quarrels between us, but the past is the past.”
“Oh, so that’s how it is.” Monkey stroked his sharp chin, remembering Xia Fei’s words.
A dozen or so minutes later, Li Mo got up and went to the restroom. Monkey also stood up, went up to Bean and Hammer, and softly whispered into their ears.
“Is that true?” Bean grunted, angrily slamming on the table.
“Why would I lie?”
Bean waved at the other rich boys and said, “Brothers, come with me to the restroom.”
Xia Fei was speechless, mentally remarking, ‘They’re even going to the restroom together? Did the beating the Monastics gave them during the day make them scared that they might be ambushed?’
The twenty-some youths stood up and swaggered over to the dining room’s restroom.
