Chapter 62: Self-Rescue
Yu Lanfeng told himself that all of this was absolutely worth it.
Because Nan Yu's future value was truly immeasurable.
"Marshal, the entire surface of the Capital Star has already been scanned by satellites. No suspicious locations have been found. What should we do now?"
Yu Lanfeng slowly opened his eyes.
"Not a single suspicious place?"
"Yes, Marshal. Everything appears normal. All locations that might have had problems have already been inspected personally, and nothing abnormal was found."
"There has also been no response whatsoever from Nan Yu's optical computer."
Which meant that Nan Yu had most likely already been taken away and was no longer on the Capital Star.
But Yu Lanfeng could state with absolute certainty that it was impossible for Nan Yu to have been transported away.
"Time is running out..."
Sealing off the Capital Star and only allowing entry but not departure was fine for a short period. Everyone could understand and had no objections.
But prolonging it wasn't feasible.
Too many people needed to travel around, and delaying many things for too long simply wasn't acceptable.
Standing in the room, Yu Lanfeng stared blankly at Nan Yu's contact number on the communication interface.
At that moment, another communication request came through.
He froze for a moment, only to quickly realize it wasn't Nan Yu calling.
"Sis?"
The caller was the Empress.
"Xiaofeng, how are things going? People have already started bothering your brother-in-law. They all want to leave the Capital Star. They're saying that even the strongest legion hasn't found anything after all this time, so there probably isn't any danger. They're demanding that the blockade be lifted."
Yu Lanfeng rubbed his temples irritably.
These people obviously didn't believe Nan Yu had enough value, so they had started causing trouble.
He was certain that if Nan Yu were already a High-Tier Mental Power User, everyone would have indignantly joined the search on their own initiative.
But now...
Of course, there were also people who firmly stood by Nan Yu and Yu Lanfeng.
For example, the Zhou family and those families whom Nan Yu had accepted commissions from and successfully helped.
Some people neither openly opposed them nor chose a side.
That, at least, had greatly reduced Yu Lanfeng's pressure.
But he knew that continuing to drag things out wasn't a solution.
And the Capital Star truly wasn't suitable for long-term lockdown.
"It seems I have no choice but to use someone I really don't want to."
The Empress originally didn't think much of it, but she quickly realized who he meant.
"You aren't thinking of asking that person for help, are you?"
To everyone else, that person wasn't much.
But to the Empress, he was extremely unfriendly.
No, not to everyone.
Only to her.
Yu Lanfeng felt no pressure whatsoever about asking him for help. Previously, he had merely refrained because he didn't want his sister to feel uncomfortable.
But now there was no other option.
"I'll go myself. You don't have to be involved, so there's no need to worry."
The Empress looked wronged.
"I'm not worried. I just think... bothering him like that isn't very good..."
Yu Lanfeng replied, "It's fine. Just this once. Don't overthink it. I won't mention you in front of him."
The Empress twitched at the corners of her mouth.
As if not mentioning her would solve anything.
The moment Yu Lanfeng appeared in front of him, wouldn't the first thing he think about be her?
That's right.
The person Yu Lanfeng referred to was the Empress's former lover.
Or rather, the man she had once mutually loved before meeting her current husband—the Emperor.
Unfortunately, that man gradually became obsessed with breaking through his own limits.
He constantly pursued greater power and neglected the Empress, who had only been a young girl at the time.
In the end, their breakup was inevitable.
Later, she met the Emperor, who had concealed his identity and was traveling alone.
They got along very well.
And eventually, everything naturally developed into a relationship.
When she discovered that her husband was actually the Emperor, she had been thoroughly shocked.
But now they had long since become an old married couple, and even had children.
If that had been all, it wouldn't have been a big deal.
After breaking up, everyone could simply move on with their own lives.
The problem was that after surpassing his own limits, her ex finally realized his previous mistakes and returned to seek reconciliation.
At that time, she and the Emperor were still only in an ambiguous stage and hadn't yet taken the final step.
As a result, she had wavered.
In the end, however, she still chose the Emperor.
But that man believed she had rejected him and chosen the Emperor out of greed for wealth and status.
Thus, their relationship became extremely awkward.
Normally, they didn't meet.
But whenever they did, he would sarcastically ridicule her.
At first, the Empress never argued back.
But after repeatedly seeing the same sarcastic face, acting as though she owed him something, she gradually became unhappy as well.
And that was how their relationship had evolved into its current irreconcilable state.
Whenever they met, they would exchange sarcastic barbs with each other.
The Emperor and Yu Lanfeng would always stay far away.
At first, the Emperor had been jealous.
But after observing several times, he realized there was no need.
Because there wasn't the slightest trace of affection in either of their eyes.
Only disgust and disdain.
So he relaxed.
They only argued.
They never fought physically.
And he had no intention of stopping them.
"You really intend to ask him for help?"
Yu Lanfeng nodded.
"I can understand why he refused to join my legion. But when it comes to something important, if I ask him for help, he won't refuse."
The Empress sighed gloomily.
"I know, but absolutely don't mention me. Otherwise I'll lose all face. Next time I see him, I probably won't even be able to argue with him confidently."
Yu Lanfeng knew she'd say that.
Soon, the Empress regained her serious expression.
"Little brother, you have to find Nan Yu as soon as possible. That's your future wife. If you lose him, even I'll look down on you, understand?"
Yu Lanfeng sighed helplessly.
"Can you stop talking nonsense? I—"
"Marshal!"
Yu Lanfeng glanced backward and nodded to the Empress.
The two disconnected the communication.
"What is it?"
The person who came immediately reported something.
"Marshal, there seems to be something unusual with the Bai family."
"The Bai family? Explain."
"Yes!"
After hearing the report, Yu Lanfeng found the situation rather strange.
The Bai family had cooperated perfectly with every inspection they were supposed to undergo.
But precisely because they were too cooperative and too calm, something felt wrong.
For ordinary people, remaining calm while cooperating wasn't unusual.
But Bai Zhouyun and Nan Yu had a marriage contract.
If something happened to Nan Yu, whether he had been killed or abducted, it would be a tremendous loss to the Bai family.
Logically, they should have been among the most anxious people.
Yet from beginning to end, they had remained quietly at home.
Or rather, they rarely went out unless necessary and behaved as though nothing had happened.
Yu Lanfeng hadn't thought much about this before.
But after someone brought it up, the more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
"Could it be that the Bai family is involved?"
No.
There wasn't enough evidence yet.
But Yu Lanfeng still ordered people to monitor every movement of the Bai family.
After staying there for several days, Nan Yu finally noticed something unusual.
The light outside the windows always darkened at exactly the same times every day.
Every day was sunny.
Even the size and direction of the clouds drifting across the sky were identical.
Thus, he boldly concluded that the sky outside wasn't real.
It was merely a simulated environment.
In other words, the house was probably enclosed inside an energy barrier.
Because of the rush, they hadn't had time to adjust the finer details of the scenery, allowing Nan Yu to notice the flaw.
But what did that change?
He still couldn't get out.
Every day, the robot repeated the same tasks—cooking, cleaning, and [N O V E L I G H T] so on.
Everything operated automatically according to its program.
Communication was impossible.
Nan Yu didn't want to destroy it either.
Otherwise, he'd have to cook for himself afterward.
By now, he had searched every corner of the house.
Even his newly acquired ability to project his mental power hadn't been wasted.
He had used it in countless places.
Yet he found nothing unusual.
Still, Nan Yu firmly believed there had to be an exit.
Otherwise, how had he gotten out—
Wait, wait, wait?!
Suddenly, Nan Yu thought of a place he had never gone back to after leaving it.
The place where he had first awakened.
Originally, he thought it was a basement.
But after discovering the room below and the house beneath that, he realized it wasn't a basement at all, but something like an attic.
Yet now that he thought about it carefully, something didn't seem right.
In any case, that was the only place he hadn't thoroughly searched.
Although he had inspected the walls and floor, he had never examined the palm-sized skylight above.
Since there was nowhere else to go anyway, Nan Yu encouraged himself and returned to that room, which he had only revisited once after escaping from it.
As soon as he entered, he saw the opened hatch in the ceiling leading to the dark room above.
Thanks to the bright sunlight outside, enough light shone in that he could see clearly.
Since there was no ladder, he could only pile things onto the bed in order to climb up.
After all, the last time he'd simply fallen down.
Once up there, he discovered that he still couldn't reach the ceiling.
Though his projected mental power could.
But that was too exhausting.
"Forget it, forget it. I'll just use mental power. Even if I can't sustain it for long, I can take it little by little. Eventually, I'll manage."
Taking a deep breath, he projected his mental power.
The first thing he investigated was the area around the small skylight.
And whether due to luck or not, he immediately discovered another crack.
Exactly like the one in the floor.
Which meant this thing could also be opened?!
And this door probably opened upward as well.
That would make things much easier.
Unfortunately, he couldn't reach the ceiling.
So he went downstairs again and spent a long time carrying things up bit by bit like an ant moving house, until he was exhausted and panting.
"Sigh... At times like this, I really wish I had an Ability User's physical strength."
But soon, another thought occurred to him.
If his projected mental power could pry open doors, then perhaps it could also move objects?
If possible, he wanted to test it immediately.
But he still had to save his mental power to open the door above.
After transporting enough things, Nan Yu stacked them together.
Standing atop them, he could finally touch the ceiling.
After feeling around, his mental power determined the location of the hidden door.
Then he pushed upward with both hands while adding his mental power.
Surprisingly, it worked.
The door rose slightly.
Through the crack, Nan Yu could even glimpse a little of the outside.
He carefully observed.
No one was there.
Only then did he continue pushing.
When he finally crawled out, he saw the true appearance of the place.
It was familiar.
Far too familiar!!
Damn it, it couldn't possibly be any more familiar!
The current Nan Yu had never been here.
But the bloody lesson and bone-deep pain from his previous life guaranteed that he could never forget this place.
This...
Was where he had died in his previous life.
"Impossible. At that time, I was already far away from the Capital Star. It was clearly some unknown half-abandoned planet. Could those people really have transported me there so quickly?"
No!
Nan Yu suddenly remembered.
Before dying in his previous life, he had actually lost consciousness for a period of time.
Perhaps it had been then that he had been secretly transferred.
Transferred here by scum like Bai Zhouyun and the others.
Then they had directed and acted out the entire performance themselves.
And in the end, he had died without even leaving a complete corpse.
So all the struggles he thought he had made in his previous life...
In their eyes, they had merely been futile resistance?
In truth, they had been utterly useless.
To Bai Zhouyun and the others, he had been nothing more than a laboratory mouse constantly trying to escape!
How laughable.
How utterly ridiculous.
How incredibly amusing!
Nan Yu couldn't help laughing out loud.
So the place where his bones had been buried in his previous life...
Had actually been the Capital Star?
He was now absolutely certain.
This place was the Capital Star.
The genuine Capital Star.
Without the slightest trace of deception.
The cave was dark and sinister.
Water droplets occasionally fell from above.
Fortunately, the position of the hidden door was high enough that water couldn't seep inside.
As for the place below—the so-called residence—
It was probably the prison Bai Zhouyun and his group had built in their previous life to keep him locked away.