Chapter 123: Return to Earth
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Xia Fei had stayed in the Wild Star Region for over two months, which was why he had accumulated such a large number of unread messages.
The countless emails poured like crazy, and a new screen kept flashing on his microcomputer, so much so that even the device started lagging.
His finger tapped to close it as Xia Fei moved to temporarily disable the notifications for the thousands of emails steadily arriving in his inbox. Right now, his utmost concern was that matter with Xiao Yu; as for these emails, he could deal with them later.
After a moment of consideration, Xia Fei decided to report first his return to Heaven Execution Training Camp in order to learn about anything related to Xiao Yu as well as the wanted notice for him.
Xia Fei was a librarian, so his immediate superior was old man Qin Mang. Not long after sending a request for a video-call, Qin Mang connected their line.
“Are you back?” On the screen, Qin Mang could be seen casually sipping tea as if he was unconcerned with Xia Fei’s whereabouts in these past two months.
“Yes, I’ve just returned from the Wild Star Region.” Xia Fei smiled.
Qin Mang nodded. “It’s good that you’re back. When are you reporting to the library? There’s no one cleaning the place while you’re away, and the place has become messy again.”
“I’ll be making a trip home first, then to the warship graveyard to repair a ship, so it’ll probably take half a month’s time in total,” Xia Fei said.
“Oh, if you’re headed home, don’t forget to bring a few hundred catties of Longjing Before Rain back with you. I’ve gotten addicted to that tea while you’re gone, and I simply can’t get used to drinking any other tea anymore.”
Xia Fei was fairly vexed by this request. Several hundred catties of Longjing? It must be known that the total yearly produce of this type of tea only amounted to several hundred catties.
“No problem; I’ll bring back some other tea leaves for you to try, elder.” Xia Fei chuckled. “Do you know anything about what happened with that insectoid ship last time? Was there a girl by the name of Xiao Yu on it?”
Xia Fei was figuratively sweating bullets inside as he nervously waited for news regarding Xiao Yu.
“No.” Qin Mang’s answer was simple and direct.
Xia Fei suddenly felt his heart throbbing as if invisible needles were piercing it.
‘Forget it. Though Xiao Yu wasn’t found among them, I’ve at least been able to do a good deed,’ Xia Fei consoled himself, his expression somewhat reflecting his disappointment.
Xia Fei learned from his conversation with Qin Mang that the insectoid ship had some serious criminals of the Alliance onboard. Due to unrevealed reasons, the Alliance had not sentenced these people with high cultivation to death and, instead, used a metal alloy casket to cryogenically freeze them.
It was rumored that this was due to those criminals being composed of extremely rare geniuses; the Alliance believed that their skills could be of use in the future, like strapping on explosive shackles and sending them on suicide missions at wartimes or if they decided one day to extract their genetic code for cloning.
Before the warp-drive technology was invented, humanity had thought of relying on cryogenics to preserve human bodies for distant space travels. By putting humans in near zero-degree cryoboxes, they could just thaw these people upon arrival to their destination.
The Alliance had pretty much mastered the technology involving this and was able to preserve someone alive in that state for a long time without dying.
Of course, these were all just rumors, and the higher-ups of the Alliance had never once admitted to any of them.
Xia Fei was very disappointed. He was not at all concerned about why those insectoids wanted to smuggle all the cryogenically frozen criminals to their territory, for it had nothing to do with him at all.
Upon capturing the insectoid ship, the Alliance’s wanted notice pertaining to Xia Fei had naturally been dismissed, and this news did make Xia Fei feel somewhat better.
What followed right after was an endless stream of communication requests from the battalion commander Ye Jingshan and Robert, who was looking to interrogate Xia Fei separately from the Department of Military Affairs about what happened then. Chen Dong, Beihai, Manjun, and Moon Song all video-called him, too.
All of them more or less asked the same set of questions: ‘Where did he go,”What happened,”How did he get back,’ et cetera. Being asked the same questions again and again and giving the same answers every time slowly wore Xia Fei until he began to feel annoyed by their interrogation.
After answering everyone’s questions, Xia Fei contacted Andre to make the necessary arrangement for his return. Andre was of course ecstatic upon learning this, and Xia Fei even got him to prepare for Sarah and Allen’s basic needs.
Actually, bringing Sarah and Allen to Earth was a win-win situation for Xia Fei. The two of them were experienced spaceship pilots, and Allen was very well-versed at high-precision radar systems. Their experience would be of great help in improving his company, which was still in its infancy.
When Xia Fei was trapped in that asteroid belt in the Wild Star Region, it was Allen who discovered his SOS first, which was a clear indication of the older man’s expertise toward high-precision positioning and radar systems. Had it not been for Allen and Sarah, Xia Fei might very well have been stuck in that asteroid belt for the rest of his life.
It was only natural for him to be vicious with his enemies to the point that they would be lying on the ground, unable to retaliate, while for people like Allen and Sarah who saved his hide, it was important for him to give them rewards of the highest standard. This was not only to express his gratitude toward them but also to demonstrate his trust for them.
Trust was a simple word, yet there were plenty of complexities layered within it. Xia Fei was never one to trust people easily, unless they of course fought alongside him or lent him a hand when he needed it the most.
Sarah and Allen were not peak experts in their fields of expertise, but they had experience and Xia Fei trusted their knowledge. With the two of them onboard, Xia Fei felt at ease knowing that they could contribute their valuable experience to his company’s growth, so why not?
Lighting a cigarette, Xia Fei was quietly contemplating what he wanted to do once he reached Earth when a screen popped up on his microcomputer. Xia Fei looked over and chuckled.
Aside from Avril, there was no one else who could directly start a conversation with him so unreasonably like this. It was unknown how she did it, but it was as if she could have direct control of Xia Fei’s microcomputer, able to do whatever she pleased with it. It had been quite some time since they last saw each other, and Xia Fei kind of missed this strange little lady.
On the screen display, Avril was pouting. Her straight, blonde hair was disheveled, her two, bright eyes had dark circles under them, and even her entire person appeared to be way skinnier than before.
She was presently sitting down as she angrily glared at Xia Fei. The corners of her eyes seemed to sparkle with wetness as well.
“Are you sick?” Xia Fei asked with concern. “How did you end up looking like that after I’ve not seen you for two months?”
Avril shook her head and did not say a word. All she did was stare at Xia Fei intensely, looking as if she was on the verge of tears.
Xia Fei smiled. “I spent some time in the Wild Star Region. That place is really interesting. If there’s ever a chance in the future, I’ll be sure to bring you along to visit it.”
Avril was still silent. Her petite and pale hands kept rubbing the corner of her pajamas, finally revealing a smile in return. “Don’t do that again. Those’re just some insectoid spies, so there’s no need for you to risk your life like that pursuing them.”
This sounded very much like a little girl acting petulant, and Xia Fei could feel a warmth rising in his heart as he nodded. “Yes, I get it; I’ll be sure to tell you before I do anything again.”
“Also, you must have a high-powered extreme long-range communicator installed aboard your ship; that’s to prevent you from going to strange places where I can’t find you.”
“The power consumption of such equipment is a lot, and it’s hardly any use. It’s better if I invest it in a few powerful offensive configurations or electronic systems as those will help maximize my attack might against enemies.” Xia Fei frowned as he rejected her suggestion.
Just like a switch had been flipped, the originally fine Avril suddenly started crying. “Xia Fei, I hate you the most! Is combat everything to you? What’s going to happen if you run off to a far-flung place again?
“I hate you, I hate you, I hate you! I don’t care; I’m going to ignore you from here on if you don’t install a high-powered extreme long-range communicator on your ship,” said Avril as tears and snot flowed freely down her face.
Xia Fei was left speechless. He quietly asked Phantom in his consciousness, “Did I say something wrong? A high-powered extreme long-range communicator is truly very worthless.”
Phantom seemed to be even more clueless than Xia Fei. “You’re right. Even a material analyzer will be more useful than that. Such a device is completely a waste of power.”
Thankfully, Xia Fei was not stupid enough to voice all these. Instead, he changed the subject and told a few interesting jokes to the girl. Avril was pure-hearted, so she very quickly stopped crying and asked Xia Fei about what happened in the Wild Star Region.
Dozens of minutes later, the innocent, little lady had completely forgotten what she had been crying about moments ago and was presently listening raptly to Xia Fei recount his deeds.
Earth Federation, New York.
Vampire slowly landed on Andre’s huge manor.
Having not seen each other for a long time, a proper feast was in order for everyone. Sarah and Allen were of course the happiest; as people from the barren Wild Star Region, being able to dine with such exquisite food and drink was like a dream come true to them.
That night, after Allen and Sarah had gone to sleep, Xia Fei, Andre, Wu Long, and Charlie set up a table outside the manor and admired the lovely moonlit sky.
“Xia Fei, it’s been more than six months since you ventured in space, you should have a pretty good understanding of the galactic society now, shouldn’t you?” Andre asked.
Xia Fei chuckled bitterly. “To tell you the truth, I’ve been running around many places this whole time. I not only failed to gain a deeper understanding of the universe but also even got more confused with it.”
“Why?” Wu Long was quick and on point, curiously asking this.
“The Milky Way spans for 250,000 lightyears, and Earth is the only planet capable of sustaining life in this galaxy; do you know that? Yet The Milky Way is no more than just a speck of dust in the Endaro Star Region, with the Pan-Human Alliance having over three hundred similar star regions. Every star region is as big as Endaro, and the entire universe has even more races besides humans.
“Such a complex universe, how can we go about understanding it? Its existence itself is already beyond our comprehension,” somewhat earnestly explained Xia Fei.
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