Chapter 148: Question
Yan Bingxuan pushed the door open. A rather willowy silhouette was on his feet at the vacant Sanctuary lobby. He struck Yan Bingxuan as being familiar but… the patrolman could not recall whom the silhouette reminded him of. This should be the one applying for Level 5 Trial I supposed? But why does this man look no stranger to me? Yan Bingxuan felt weird…
"Good day!" The young man got up gracelessly upon seeing Yan Bingxuan, "Chief!" The salutation went courteously.
As a response, the chief nodded in dignity as he trotted towards Ye Chong. All the time he had been wondering what in the Orbits a man sought such trial with difficulty at such a timing and "Ah!" Yan Bingxuan was astonished when he recognized who the applicant was as he got closer.
"Good day," nodded Ye Chong in respect as he greeted, "Uncle Yan."
"Oh it’s Ye, my little blacksmith in training." His expression turned gentle right away, "What’s with the visit on such a late night? Do you have anything in request? Do word it if you wish. I would not treat your request with informality, as long as it’s within my capabilities," he smiled as he spoke, yet his inside was screaming in terror, for elderly’s sake don’t tell me this is the applicant for the Level 5 Trial!
"Thank you for your kind words. Yes, I do have something to do," responded Ye Chong, "I would like to apply for the Level 5 Trial at the Sanctuary," he said calmly.
"Le-Level 5 Trial?" Pretentiously the patrolman reacted with shock as he spoke on in flowery concern, "What had made our blacksmith think of the Level 5 Trial so suddenly? Was it a little bit too early for now? So you wanted to leave the Orbits? Oh, Little Ye, Little Little Ye, did you bump into some troubles recently? If you did, you could have told me everything! I’ll solve it for you! If anyone with blind eyes had offended you, tell your Uncle Yan and let your Uncle Yan to settle him for ya, all for justice, for our boy." The gravel had been slammed on the table of his Honor, undoubtedly the patrolman was very much not delightful of this request. Ye Chong was a hen that laid golden eggs! Nobody would be delightful to see their money-printing machine simply flying away!
But then, regarding how Ye Chong had the desire to leave the Orbits, he did not express much worries. Psh, you want to pass the Level 5 Trial of the Sanctuary? What do you think this is? Playing house? How long have you been with Ge that old goat? How much have you learned? And you wanted to pass Level 5? In your dreams, boy. Not even your master, that old goat could pass if he came and applied for it!
In his opinion, Ye Chong’s failure was inevitable, though it would be another story regarding if he would return to his area afterwards… All he was concerned about was if Ye Chong wanted to leave his area, there would be no way for him to stop that from happening. Ye Chong had yet mentioned this but obviously this had become a bad beginning for him.
"No, uncle. I just wanted to apply," Ye Chong did not change his mind.
"Ye, boy, you got to think it through. Don’t be hot-headed in this. You do have the bravery to try challenging the trial but you must know that you would be given punishment if you failed the trial accordingly. And chances are you would regret it for the rest of your life! So you have to be really, really sure you wanted to take on the trial. Why don’t you head home and discuss it with your master first?" It would be pointless for him to beat around the bush at that moment, he decided to go straight to the point instead.
"Oh, save the discussion. I’m making an application now." Ye Chong’s expression remained unchanged, probably was not because of how he was confident on passing the trial but how he simply did not have any other choice. The killing syndrome inside him had been inactive for quite sometimes. Maybe it was due to the effect after learning meditation or it was due to his mere luck. There could be a cure everywhere else but not here. Only if he would leave the Orbits as soon as possible, the syndrome could be eliminated. And the single thing that stood in his way out was this trial. So, by hook or by crook, he would take on the test.
The patrolman was helpless in stopping Ye Chong, since beating around the bush and ordering him straight up did not work at all. He did not dare to try doing anything funny ever since, considering how the Sanctuary had been treating the applicants very solemnly. He could be skewed if he tried to fiddle with Ye Chong! Well, he could not understand the whole point of setting up an unnecessary trial for residents to exit in the very first place. This was not only unnecessary, but also would cause the reduction in the number of talents within the Orbits. Those who could succeed in the Level 5 Trial must be the greatest master in their fields. And the Sanctuary was letting these people to leave the place? Would that not be a major loss to the Orbits itself? Ugh, I seriously don’t get it, I wonder which elderly had hit on his head to make such a flawed system.
Of course, these rants were just rumbling inside the patrolman, no way he would have the courage to spit them out.
Seeing how determined Ye Chong looked, the patrolman could only do as he requested. He begged to the Orbits that Ye Chong would fail the trial and stay here after… "Hah!" he laughed as he went tapping Ye Chong’s shoulders, "You are a young man indeed, having the drive to overcome everything in sight! Uncle Yan certainly admires fine young man like you! Never mind, it’s okay if you failed, you could try it again. As long as you are here, Uncle Yan would be positive of this!"
Ye Chong reflexively dodged the his hands at first, but that would look really rude, so he pulled himself back roughly in the end and let the tapping happen. "Thank you Uncle Yan." His face was grim. "A moment please, my boy!" He headed to the communicator.
"Yes, good evening, sire!" Yan Bingxuan reported to the higher-up through the communicator, mentioning there was an applicant currently at the lobby. "Okay, Ye. All set!" Shut the communicator, he turned to Ye Chong, "The authority would send a spaceship to pick you up later. I’m not sure where exactly they would trial you, but the men on the spaceship should be telling you what to do."
Ye Chong nodded his head in understanding. The Level 5 Trial did look like not a simple test indeed, as the location was not known to everyone, not even the insiders at the Sanctuary. Intriguing… the reason behind this.
Ye Chong picked a chair nearby and sat down. The wooden chair was unexpectedly not as comfy as the cheapest chair in the 5 major galaxies. And Ye Chong spent the next 3 hours on such chair, which was impressive to the patrolman as Ye Chong had barely changed his posture ever since. It was a rare sight to see an active young man like Ye Chong being able to be this undisturbed and patient. I do expect much from you, Ye. You would one day become something.
Certainly Ye Chong was calm, he had been exchanging words with Shang inside his head. "You see, love is a kind of necessity in everyone’s life and the only necessity in the history of humankind to be able to replace eating, drinking or even sleeping." Shang was performing a kind of "mentality modification" inside Ye Chong, or in his language, "paradigm rebirth". Ye Chong would be naturally disinterested of it, but it did become an average entertainment while waiting for his ride.
"Ye, tsk, tsk. You understood my words?" Shang grew excited as he saw how the mechanical boy finally showing interests to his affectionate insights of life, he started to get more elaborative over the time, he would includes stories, quotations and even a play during his lecture, which Ye Chong found out quite a number of weird stuffs inside… Like in stories Shang had told, those capable men must have a woman at his back. Mhm, some of them even have more than one woman at the back. Well, that… that’d be weird. Why must a man have a woman at the back? I don't have a woman at my back you see. But I’m not dead and I’m kicking alive! Oh, is it a kind of timed bomb in humanity? A hidden threat I couldn’t see? Hmm… Which field though, Shang, the biology? Or medical biology?
Asked Ye Chong sincerely to Lecturer Shang.
"Ts…" Shang lost the mood to tease, as he sounded depressed, "Ye… How could man live without a woman?" His words were coated with oily tears, "How could a man still be a man without woman? Biology? Medical biology? Screw those stupid pigs! I had never ever heard of this crap in my life. How would this be related with biology or medical biology? Ye, this is instinct, the nature of humanity! Nature! Instinct! Do you even understand what those words mean? What? You! You are a beast! You are a bloody beast! …"
Ye Chong did not compute the dramatized words from Shang … am I not a human? Other than the strange fact that I don’t really get muscles, my anatomy looked exactly like a human… but why would Shang say I’m a beast? Gasp… Mu did a better explanation at my inquiries, simple, straightforward and would never be misleading, unlike Shang. I sometimes wish he could speak English.
At least the in-depth discussion worked like a charm. Those difficult wordings from Shang made Ye Chong felt time flew. He did not feel the boredom of anticipation, even if he was good at it. Waiting was never a pleasing experience to anyone.
The spaceship had arrived to pick him up.
It parked right at the outside of the Sanctuary. A pale green spaceship it was. It did not have a metallic texture, it looked more like a spaceship made out of plants. The design of the spaceship struck Ye Chong however, as it looked similar to Gliding Joy he had designed for full speed before, just that it was much bigger in size, not as narrow as Gliding Joy. The placement of the engine was also different, it was installed at the end of the spaceship, unlike Gliding Joy which had its engine at the front.
It was a kind of miniature spaceship and it could take on 3 passengers at most. A meaty man hopped off the cabin and walked towards Ye Chong and Yan, "May I ask, which one of you is Mr. Ye Chong?" Ye Chong observed the man quietly as he made remarks regarding his physique. No doubt the body was of top quality and had undergone systematic training. His eyes were sharp, he should be a man in combats. Ye Chong was right. Inside this miniature spaceship there were two other men, one being the pilot and mechanic, the other being combat squad member for security enforcement.
"Me," answered Ye Chong briefly.
The buffed man was slightly astonished by Ye Chong’s appearance. He took a glance and the apparent age was surprising to him. But he reacted professionally, "Greetings, Mr. Ye Chong." He reached his hand out politely, "I am sent by the Sanctuary to escort you to the venue for the Level 5 Trial." He gestured next, "Please get on board now."
"Okay." Ye Chong nodded and he stepped into the spaceship right away.
The beefy man rolled into the cabin and got into his position. He made a nod to the pilot and the spaceship zoomed into the sky.
The man had hardly spoken a word with Yan Bingxuan back on the ground.
Ye Chong got to his seat and took a look around the interior of the spaceship. It was rather crammed for a spaceship. There was no window for one to check the outside. To preserve the space, there seemed to be nothing else than some basic facilities inside the spaceship. No adornment, no fancy speaker, no tray, no bar.
Ye Chong estimated the maximum distance the spaceship could travel and calculated the success rate of hi-jacking and escaping with the ship. "Negative," he concluded, the spaceship was solely for short distance travel and it could not perform a space warp apparently. And he could never leave the Orbits without using the space warp mechanism.
Well, does that mean the venue of the trial is pretty close to the Orbits? The Sanctuary actually sent a miniature spaceship to pick me up? Wondered Ye Chong soundlessly, as according to what he was aware of, there was no sound base nearby for a spaceship to stop by!
Then where the heck are we heading to?
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