Chapter 116: Imminent
After Nan Yu closed the door, Ye Xing remained standing outside the entire time. He clearly knew that he could neither see what was happening inside nor hear a single sound from where he stood, yet he stayed there as though deliberately tormenting himself.
In truth, he knew...
If this attempt failed again, Zhang Wei would almost certainly die. One of the Mental Power Users he had previously threatened had once told him...
Zhang Wei’s Mental Contamination was rather unusual. If it could be treated through conventional methods, there would be no problem. However, if his condition continued like this, he would not survive, because his Mental Contamination erupted at regular intervals.
Every eruption destroyed another portion of his remaining health.
The last Mental Power User had said that the next eruption would be the one that killed him.
Ye Xing firmly believed those words.
The Mental Power Users he had kidnapped hated him to the bone. They knew how important the person inside was to him, so they would certainly tell him the truth precisely to make him suffer and satisfy their own hatred.
Their claims might have contained some exaggeration, but Ye Xing knew perfectly well about the periodic eruptions.
He stayed by Zhang Wei’s side through every single one.
Even when Zhang Wei injured him until his entire body was covered in wounds, he never left.
Logically speaking, this should have been his final opportunity to kidnap another Mental Power User.
There were only fifteen days left before the next eruption.
Originally, Nan Yu had not been his target.
However, while passing near the Empire’s border, Ye Xing had heard people there talking about Nan Yu. Although Nan Yu lived all the way on the Capital Star, even people at the border said he was incredibly powerful.
That was practically equivalent to the entire Empire acknowledging him as the greatest Mental Power User beneath the High-Tier level.
Ye Xing had immediately been tempted.
Whether judged by reputation or by the strength Ye Xing uncovered through a brief investigation, his original target could not compare to Nan Yu at all.
That was why he changed targets.
He also knew exactly how difficult it would be to take Nan Yu away.
After all, Nan Yu lived on the Capital Star of an extraordinarily powerful Empire. The Capital Star of every nation was its most important and heavily defended location.
Sneaking across the Empire’s border was no problem for him.
Sneaking onto the Capital Star, however, was an entirely different matter.
Because of this, he had spent more than two months near the Capital Star modifying his concealment device.
Unexpectedly, he had actually succeeded.
However, the device had a strict time limit.
It could only operate for one day. After a total of twenty-four hours of use, it would immediately become useless.
That meant he could only enter and leave once.
He had only one chance.
Once he entered the Capital Star, even more difficulties awaited him.
First of all, every person on the Capital Star was required to have a registered identity.
As long as someone moved around on the planet, the satellites surrounding the Capital Star would detect their life signal.
If the number of detected life signals did not match the number of registered residents, it would immediately trigger a pursuit.
Ye Xing had also spent considerable effort solving that problem.
Killing someone and taking their place was obviously impossible.
Everyone’s optical computer was connected to its owner’s life. If the owner died, the optical computer would also lose its signal, marking that person as deceased.
The optical computers possessed extremely advanced automatic detection systems.
After a person was born, they were bound to a chip. Their optical computer could be replaced or upgraded, but the chip would remain the same forever.
An Empire with such systems truly left Ye Xing unsure where to begin.
In the end, he used his appearance to find someone willing to help him.
Using the privileges of his own identity, that person temporarily arranged a proper identity for Ye Xing.
The problem was that Ye Xing had to pretend to indulge and humor him.
He did not know whether Zhang Wei would blame him after waking up.
However...
Ye Xing took a deep breath.
That still had not been the hardest part.
The most difficult part of kidnapping a Mental Power User every time was...
Planning and carrying out the kidnapping itself.
Yet compared with this attempt, everything he had encountered before was insignificant.
First of all, as an unregistered person who only possessed a temporary identity permitting him to move around, forget meeting Nan Yu—he could not even approach the Nan residence or the Royal Military Academy.
A large area around both the Nan residence and the academy was subjected to strict inspections.
The security surrounding the Nan residence existed to protect the Nan family and to make Nan Yu safer whenever he returned home.
Between the Nan residence and the academy, Ye Xing initially chose the Nan residence.
The academy’s security was simply too strict. There was no way for him to approach it.
Although the defenses around the Nan residence were also rigorous, they were not entirely without flaws.
And so, Ye Xing concealed himself nearby and began keeping watch.
Every day, aside from dealing with the person who coveted his looks, he remained there observing the residence.
Fortunately, although that person was obsessed with his appearance, he strangely had little interest in actually doing that sort of thing with him.
Only because of that had Ye Xing managed to endure for so long.
What Ye Xing had never expected was that after watching the Nan residence for more than ten consecutive days, he only saw the Nan family’s eldest and second young masters return occasionally.
He never caught so much as a glimpse of Nan Yu.
Later, he learned that Nan Yu sometimes stayed with his close friend and classmate.
Finding out the identity of that classmate was much easier.
Ye Xing quickly discovered who he was and investigated him thoroughly.
Nan Yu was well protected, but the same could not necessarily be said for someone named Yang Zhou.
However, after investigating, Ye Xing found that although Nan Yu occasionally slept at Yang Zhou’s home, it did not happen often.
Moreover, every time Nan Yu went there to rest, a large number of people secretly followed him.
Ye Xing genuinely did not possess enough strength to deal with them.
In the end, he discovered that whenever Nan Yu did not return to the Nan residence or visit Yang Zhou, he seemed to go somewhere else.
That location was relatively easy to investigate.
It was a hospital established on the Capital Star by Yu Lanfeng’s legion, the strongest legion in the Empire, specifically for its internal personnel.
Logically speaking, a hospital exclusively serving such a legion should have even tighter security.
However, after carefully observing it, Ye Xing discovered that this was not the case.
The hospital employed many doctors, Mental Power Users, and other staff members.
Aside from the soldiers who already lived within the surrounding area, a large portion of the remaining employees chose to return home at night.
Those people became Ye Xing’s opening.
By coincidence, he also discovered that after Nan Yu entered the hospital, some of the people who constantly followed him would leave because everyone considered the hospital absolutely safe.
Of course, they did not all leave.
At most, half of them would depart.
Although those people had been specially assigned to protect Nan Yu, they also had their own duties to perform.
Naturally, all of that had only been Ye Xing’s speculation.
At the time, he knew nothing and could only rely on guesses.
After estimating the time until Zhang Wei’s next Mental Contamination eruption, calculating how long the return journey would take, and determining how little time he had left, Ye Xing decided that even though he had not yet fully understood the situation, he had to infiltrate the hospital immediately and wait for an opportunity.
He remained hidden inside the hospital for approximately half a month.
During that time, he learned parts of the hospital’s layout and the schedules and shift changes of many employees.
Before long, he found an opportunity.
While Nan Yu was alone in the top-floor lounge, Ye Xing kidnapped him.
In truth, Ye Xing had not known that someone else stayed there with Nan Yu.
He only knew that Nan Yu slept and rested in the lounge on the top floor.
He did not know that Yu Lanfeng also came there every day.
Very few people knew about Yu Lanfeng’s presence.
There were definitely fewer than ten people in the entire hospital who knew, and none of them would dare speak carelessly about it.
Furthermore, the area surrounding the top-floor lounge was heavily guarded most of the time, preventing Ye Xing from approaching it.
Therefore, even now, Ye Xing still had no idea what kind of person he had offended.
Yu Lanfeng sat in the cockpit, looking at the starry sky displayed on the screen before him.
It truly was beautiful.
But he had no desire to admire it.
His heart contained nothing but anxiety and urgency.
He desperately wanted them to go faster.
Faster still.
"Marshal, please don’t be too anxious. We’ve already found another lead. We should be able to locate Nan Yu very soon."
Of course Yu Lanfeng understood that.
He was simply afraid that during this period, somewhere beyond his knowledge, Nan Yu would be harmed by the kidnapper.
Compared with him, Nan Ming appeared slightly calmer.
He even had time to observe Yu Lanfeng’s expression and condition.
Although he remained unwilling in his heart, he had to admit that he was gradually letting go of his prejudice against Yu Lanfeng.
Nevertheless, this concerned his youngest son’s lifelong happiness.
Nan Yu himself still needed to be satisfied.
As his father, Nan Ming could only offer some advice for reference.
After standing there for a while, Yu Lanfeng turned and left.
He went to find the people he had brought with him.
The technical department was analyzing the rare spatial ripple they had detected.
They had reached this area by continuously tracking that signal.
According to their analysis, it seemed to be a signal formed by a magnetic field intermittently emitted after some kind of machine had been used and destroyed.
After studying it, they concluded that this might have been the reason the other party had managed to enter and leave the Capital Star without making a sound.
However, they could not confirm anything until they saw the person responsible.
All they could do was continue following the intermittent signal.
More and more time passed.
Nan Yu had already been missing for more than half a month.
Although they had finally discovered a lead, they still could not be certain whether it would truly lead them to Nan Yu.
In that sense, they practically still had no leads at all.
Everyone felt terrible.
Nan Yu had already been reserved for their legion.
He was also an exceptionally sought-after Mental Power User and a precious talent certain to become a High-Tier Mental Power User in the future.
Almost everyone in their legion looked forward to Nan Yu’s graduation.
Once he graduated, he would join their legion.
At that time, if someone in the legion developed S-rank Mental Contamination...
Their marshal surely would not simply leave them to die, would he?
Perhaps not everyone could be treated, but at least they would no longer have to wait helplessly for death.
There would always be some possibility of survival.
But now...
Their treasure, the precious jewel of their legion, had actually been kidnapped.
This was not only a humiliation to the entire Empire.
It also filled every member of their legion with fury.
Ye Xing had not merely kidnapped a Mental Power User.
He had taken one of the hopes of the Empire’s Mental Power Users and one of the hopes of Yu Lanfeng’s legion.
More than one person secretly thought that when they caught the culprit, they absolutely had to make him continue living in the most agonizing way imaginable!
Yes.
They would not kill him.
They would force him to remain alive in eternal agony!!
Yu Lanfeng had not publicly announced this expedition.
They had departed in secret.
Although the vessel they were currently using was a warship, its exterior had been disguised to resemble a private spacecraft.
To outsiders, it looked as though an extremely wealthy person had purchased a luxurious ship but had somehow failed to hire escort vessels to protect it.
In the eyes of passing interstellar criminals, it was an incomparably delicious piece of meat casually left beside the road.
The kind of meat they would feel ashamed of themselves for not eating.
"Well? Are we doing it?"
"Of course we are. Why wouldn’t we? Is this rich bastard an idiot? He actually dared to travel without hiring escort ships?"
"But we’re still inside the Empire. We’re supposed to leave quietly. If we commit another crime and get caught, they’ll arrest us and force us to perform hard labor for the rest of our lives."
Indeed, that was the Empire’s tradition.
Criminals were not merely imprisoned, nor were they casually sentenced to death.
Most of them were sent to work.
Work, work, work!!
There was so much labor that needed doing and not enough people to do it.
Now that criminals had delivered themselves, they could all be dragged away and made to work for free.
How convenient!
It also served as punishment.
They had to work every single day.
No work meant no food.
If they worked, they received food, but only enough to leave them half-full.
Then the next day, they continued working and eating.
That was how they remained alive.
"This Empire is seriously bizarre. Other countries either exchange captured criminals for wealth and resources or kill them to demonstrate their strength. But the Empire’s punishment... doesn’t it leave room for people to exploit the system?"
"I heard those criminals are all supervised by the legion commanded by the Empire’s strongest warrior, Marshal Yu Lanfeng. There’s absolutely no chance of anything like that happening. According to the reports, the kind of situation you described has never occurred even once."
"Enough nonsense. Are we doing this or not? That ship is pretty fast. If we don’t decide soon, it’ll disappear right from under our noses!"
"It’s about time we replaced this piece-of-trash ship anyway. Let’s go, shall we?"
And so, under the incredulous gazes of Yu Lanfeng, Nan Ming, and everyone else aboard, their spacecraft was actually intercepted.
The other party even arrogantly sent them a communication request.
The soldier piloting the vessel turned and glanced at Yu Lanfeng.
These people clearly had hostile intentions.
What should they do?
Under ordinary circumstances, they would all know exactly how to respond.
They were professionals, after all.
The problem was that they were currently operating in secret and could not reveal their identities.
Yu Lanfeng’s face in particular was far too recognizable!
Yu Lanfeng evidently realized this as well and moved into a corner of the cockpit, concealing himself.
"Accept it."
Once the communication was connected, several filthy, disheveled, and arrogant faces appeared on the screen.
They looked unbearably smug, as though they had already succeeded.
"Oh, that was pretty fast. I thought you’d drag things out for a while. Since you’re being so straightforward, then straightforwardly... then... Hm?"
They stared carefully.
After the communication connected, the people on the other side were not panicked.
Instead, every one of them wore what appeared to be ordinary clothing, but somehow...
"Hey, I feel like I’ve seen this type of cockpit somewhere before."
"Now that you mention it, I think I have too."
"Idiots, doesn’t it look like the cockpit of that warship we saw in a movie? It really... really..."
At that point, all of them fell silent.
They had not noticed it at first.
But the longer they looked, the more uncomfortable they became.
Surely they could not be this unlucky?
Could this spacecraft belong not to some brainless rich person, but to a legion conducting a secret mission while disguised as civilians?
What were they supposed to do now?
"Misunderstanding! This is all a misunderstanding! We were just about to leave. Leave the Empire, I mean. We really are leaving the Empire. Look at the direction we’re traveling—it’s straight toward the border. Well, if there’s nothing else, we’ll be going now, alright? We won’t disturb you any further. No need to thank us. Anyway, since there’s nothing else, we’ll end the communication now."
They immediately disconnected.
The man who had just spoken in an extremely cowardly tone widened his eyes and screamed at the top of his lungs,
"Run€€€€!"
Their old spacecraft abruptly turned around and pushed its engines to maximum power, fleeing toward the Empire’s border at its highest possible speed.
It appeared to be moving faster and faster, but...
Yu Lanfeng’s side looked ordinary but was actually filled with powerful figures.
The criminals pretended to be powerful but were actually trash.
Their ship seemed fast, but even after several minutes at maximum speed, it had not traveled as far as Yu Lanfeng’s warship could cover in half a minute at its current cruising speed.
Only after seeing that the communication had been disconnected did Yu Lanfeng speak.
"Send an encrypted message to the nearby garrison and have them arrest those people. This is not an emergency, and this region is not under our jurisdiction."
"Yes, Marshal!"
Aside from the legion led by Yu Lanfeng, the Empire possessed many other legions.
Most of the regions under his responsibility were along the border.
Other legions were naturally responsible for many areas within the Empire itself.
When dealing with criminals such as these robbers, as long as the situation was not particularly dangerous, it was inconvenient for Yu Lanfeng’s forces to intervene directly.
Since there was a local garrison, the matter should be left to them.
"Marshal, the message has been sent. Do we leave immediately?"
"Wait at a distance for a while. The moment we detect the garrison approaching, accelerate and leave."
The fact that Yu Lanfeng was here absolutely could not be revealed.
Only a handful of his closest confidants knew that he had left the Capital Star.
Even within his own legion, very few people were aware of it.
Almost everyone believed he was still stationed on the Capital Star and had gone nowhere.
Approximately ten minutes later, the advance unit of the nearby garrison arrived.
They headed directly in the direction the criminals had fled.
Judging by their speed, it would not take long for them to catch up.
Only then did Yu Lanfeng lead his people away from the area.
After the local garrison captured and interrogated the criminals, everyone was left somewhat speechless.
The criminals had only intended to commit one final robbery before leaving the Empire.
They had never imagined they would run into a warship carrying out a covert mission...
Even more unexpectedly, the people aboard that warship had not arrested them personally.
Instead, they had directly notified the local garrison.
Either their mission was truly so secret that they could not risk exposing themselves, or they had not brought much equipment and would have been at a disadvantage if they rashly confronted the criminals.
The local garrison did not send anyone to search for Yu Lanfeng’s warship.
They all served the Empire.
They were all soldiers.
Whatever secret mission another legion had received would certainly be beneficial to the nation.
They had no reason to investigate a confidential operation assigned to another legion.
Moreover, those unknown soldiers had helped them capture a band of robbers consisting of thirty people.
Although the criminals looked poor now, they had once enjoyed a period of prosperity.
Capturing so many criminals earned the local soldiers military merit.
It was a rather satisfying reward.
After working for an entire day, Nan Yu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
With quick hands, he put the Nianshen Grass away and returned it to his space button.
Then, forcing himself to remain upright, he examined the man one more time.
He had succeeded.
How should he put it?
In truth, the treatment had been quite simple.
He had merely used the most direct and brutal method to clear away the dense Mental Contamination inside the man’s Mental Sea.
It had been a long time since Nan Yu encountered an Ability User who required treatment through such a method.
Fortunately, he was still capable of doing it.
However, the results were obviously somewhat inferior to what a genuine High-Tier Mental Power User could achieve.
Nan Yu had already exhausted nearly all his mental power, but some Mental Contamination still remained inside the man.
It had been reduced to approximately B-rank.
At this level, the man could regain consciousness and recover his sanity.
He would also slowly be able to move again and begin rehabilitation.
However, all of that would have to wait until he woke up.
Had Nan Yu already become a High-Tier Mental Power User, then the treatment just now...
No.
It would not even have taken that long.
He would have needed only half the time to completely remove all the man’s Mental Contamination.
Unlike now, when he had worked himself nearly to death and succeeded in saving the man, yet still left B-rank Mental Contamination behind.
Mental Contamination below S-rank could be gradually removed.
It did not matter if the treatment was interrupted halfway.
As long as some precautions were taken, the patient would remain safe.
Only Mental Contamination at or above S-rank was different.
The quantity was enormous, and the contamination itself was extremely aggressive.
If it could not be completely eliminated in one attempt, or at least substantially reduced in both quantity and intensity, the remaining Mental Contamination would rapidly counterattack.
That backlash could inflict severe damage on both the Mental Power User and the Ability User’s Mental Sea.
Some people had once refused to believe the warnings.
As a result, several Mental Power Users suffered complete mental collapse and became ordinary people.
Everyone involved was held accountable.
Even the Mental Power Users who had failed to cherish their own mental power and attempted something strictly forbidden by the Empire were arrested.
However, they were later released.
They had been arrested because they had violated the law.
They were released because, during their years as Mental Power Users, they had made substantial contributions to society.
That was the only reason they were set free.
From that day onward, however, every one of them was an ordinary person.
Their standard of living, their careers, and the money in their possession all gradually declined.
In the end, their lives became utterly miserable.
Regardless, Nan Yu would never make such an elementary mistake.
Before withdrawing, he had deliberately retained a portion of his mental power to protect both himself and the Ability User from harm.
After enduring the remaining Mental Contamination’s counterattack, he could finally rest for a while.