Chapter 313

Chapter 313: Spoils of War!

To be honest, Yu Sheng was still pretty surprised.

He had seen cowards. He had seen people who stayed loud and noble right up to death. But someone who could be that loud and still be that much of a coward—he really had never seen before.

The flash vanished in the distance. It was clearly some kind of teleportation tech—maybe a prepared safe hideout, maybe a random corner of space. Either way, it disappeared from Yu Sheng’s perception.

That left him with a bitter little regret. He should have spent more time studying the ship’s structure first, at least locating some offensive weapon systems. Then he could have blasted Babole-3 while that flash was still accelerating.

Of course, it was too late to think that now.

And even if he regretted it, Yu Sheng hadn’t left himself with nothing. During the fight, he had already let his blood seep into the steel and left a small mark on the Sage.

If he couldn’t track him now, fine. Fear of blood and death would grow on its own. When the time was right, the prey would return to the hunter.

So Yu Sheng steadied his mood and turned his attention back to the ship.

The Sage had escaped, but plenty had not. There were secrets he could pry from the mouths of the cultists still alive.

The control hall was a wreck. The surviving Hermitage Order members were still trapped in metal cages. Living seals held them so tightly they couldn’t move a finger.

But compared to those restraints, the Sage’s betrayal hurt far more.

Everyone had seen that streak of light—seen it accelerate, then blink away.

So when Yu Sheng’s face appeared again on the ship’s wall, the cultists barely reacted.

“Clearly, you’ve been abandoned by your Sage,” Yu Sheng’s steel-grinding voice echoed through the hall as his face addressed them. “That so-called Path of Saint Veneration and ‘noble sacrifice’ he preached—he probably never believed it himself. What about you? How long are you going to keep resisting?”

The hall fell silent.

At last someone spoke—a stubborn operator who still held his neck stiff. “D-don’t think you can trick us! Trash is trash, but we are us! No matter what, we won’t bow to a monster like you!”

Yu Sheng went a little numb.

“…You’re cultists, and I’m just a warm-hearted civilian. That line makes it sound like we swapped roles.”

A roomful of cultists cursed him on the spot.

Yu Sheng didn’t bother engaging. He simply tightened the cages until they quieted, then spoke again.

“Before I send you to your new home, I have questions. You can refuse, of course. Professionals will interrogate you later anyway, and the process probably won’t be as comfortable.

“My question is simple. Are artificial saintesses and knights both made by modifying living people? Where did you even get these people?”

Only silence answered him.

Yu Sheng wasn’t surprised. He switched topics immediately.

“Fine. Then talk about something else. What exactly were you doing in the borderland? You parked a ship this big there—why? And that Mistbound City… what’s going on with it?”

Another stretch of suffocating silence.

Finally, a Hermitage Order member spoke, full of mockery and venom. “That place, full of errors and defects, refused our correction and salvation. Sooner or later it will face utter ruin! You will never know anything—you’ll die with them! Everyone who refuses the Path of Saint Veneration will die with this defective world in the end!”

“All right. I get your attitude,” Yu Sheng said calmly.

He knew he wouldn’t get anything useful from them, and he wasn’t in the mood to waste words.

“Honestly, in my current mood, I don’t plan to leave you alive. But after learning the truth about the artificial saintess, I realized killing you isn’t nearly enough. So come on. I’ll send you somewhere nice. There are professionals there. Sooner or later, you’ll open your mouths.”

The control hall door opened.

But beyond it wasn’t a corridor inside the ship. It was a hall inside the Special Operations Bureau’s headquarters containment zone.

Heavily armed agents and Deep Divers stood at the entrance. Bai Li Qing and Song Cheng stood beside them—Bai Li Qing as cold as ever, Song Cheng grinning like a fisherman who’d just hauled up an eighty-pound catch in front of two thousand civilians while cameras filmed him and broadcast it across the universe.

Only then did the surviving Hermitage Order members realize where their missing compatriots had gone.

The living floor writhed.

Amid terrified screams, the final batch of “prisoners” was packaged up and delivered through the doorway.

Then the ship, loaded with secrets and conspiracy, finally went quiet.

Inside the control hall, the walls and roof twisted by battle began restoring themselves. Yu Sheng’s face vanished from the wall, and after a while, a phantom door appeared in a corner.

Yu Sheng shoved it open and stumbled out.

“…Finally done,” he panted, mouth twitching. “Died twice in a row. Irene’s mouth really is blessed.”

As he spoke, he pulled out his phone and called Bai Li Qing.

“Hey, it’s Yu Sheng. You done over there? Everyone under control?”

“Everything is going smoothly,” Bai Li Qing’s calm, indifferent voice came through. “Their will to resist is very weak.”

“Of course it’s weak,” Yu Sheng said, annoyed just thinking about it. “Their superior gave a big passionate speech, then ran right in front of them. On the way out, he killed over ten of his own people just to fight me. Seriously.”

“The Special Operations Bureau has dealt with the Hermitage Order many times,” Bai Li Qing said, still flat, though the content sounded like she was trying to comfort him. “Capturing this many cultists at once is a rare victory. Don’t dwell on the leader who escaped. The cultists you brought back are enough for us to piece together the truth of this operation.”

“Yeah. Hopefully,” Yu Sheng muttered.

Then he hesitated, distracted. After a pause, he added, “Oh, right. About what I said before—gifting the artificial saintess and the matching holy coffin to the Special Operations Bureau… I might have to take that back.”

“What happened?”

“Something went wrong. The artificial saintess is dead, and the holy coffin is damaged. I’m not sure they can be fixed.” Yu Sheng paused. “And… that artificial saintess is kind of special. I’ll explain when I’m back.”

“Okay,” Bai Li Qing answered easily. “Then when are you coming back?”

“Give me a bit,” Yu Sheng said, lifting his head and looking around. “I’ve got an idea.”

On the other end, he heard a quiet inhale.

Yu Sheng felt helpless. “Is it really that scary when I have an idea?”

“…Tell me your idea,” Bai Li Qing said, forcing steadiness.

Yu Sheng thought for a moment. “I want to try to drive this ship back.”

For once, Bai Li Qing didn’t sound calm. “You know how to pilot a Hermitage Order ship?! Their navigation and control systems are famous for being bizarre—”

“No,” Yu Sheng cut her off. “But I don’t need to pilot it now. I just need some time to understand it.”

Bai Li Qing fell silent for a few seconds. Very obviously, she was connecting the dots.

“…Like the valley?” she asked carefully.

“Pretty much.”

“You turned that ship into—”

“Ate it,” Yu Sheng said bluntly. “Otherwise how do you think I could send you batches of packaged cultists? With my own combat power? Come on.”

Bai Li Qing took a deep breath.

“Okay. I understand. Since you have a better way on your side, the Special Operations Bureau won’t interfere. Good luck.”

“Thanks,” Yu Sheng said, smiling.

Then, just as he was about to hang up, he remembered something, and his voice jumped.

“Oh, and one more thing! Holy shit, I almost forgot!”

Bai Li Qing’s voice instantly tightened. “Say it.”

“I’m basically calling across the borderland on interstellar roaming right now,” Yu Sheng said, wincing. Earlier—while wandering the ship after resurrection—he had checked the Stellar Union communications fees online, and the number had nearly blinded him. “Can the bureau reimburse this?”

Silence crossed the stars, deafening.

Half a minute later, Bai Li Qing forced out a single word through clenched teeth. “Yes.”

“Oh, great. That’s all. I’m going to study the ship. Bye.”

After he hung up, Yu Sheng’s mood improved a lot.

Counting loot always made people happy.

Inside the control hall, the wrecked battlefield was still repairing itself at a visible pace.

Yu Sheng didn’t actually know how to fix black-tech equipment. He was simply restoring damaged areas back to the state they’d been in when he first took over. If he had to explain the process, it was a bit like his own regeneration after death.

Destruction rewound. Damage erased.

That was why, when the Sage was about to self-destruct—even though he didn’t in the end—Yu Sheng had been forced to throw him out.

Back then, he still hadn’t finished taking over the whole upper area. If the blast had reached beyond the hall, the damage outside would have been something he couldn’t repair.

He’d promised Irene he would bring local specialties back.

Now, the takeover of the entire ship was nearing completion.

Relaxed and satisfied, Yu Sheng walked past rows of seats and consoles.

Metal writhed under his feet. Pipes reshaped beside him. Hanging cables curled like living things and slid back into grooves in the walls and roof. With the low hum of machines, power returned rapidly throughout the hall.

Behind him, the consoles that had gone dark lit up one by one. Holograms and screens bloomed to life, flashing with secrets of the universe, the stars, and faraway deep space.

Yu Sheng reached the wide porthole and narrowed his eyes.

Bathed in distant starlight, he let out a satisfied sigh amid the cold radiation—

This local specialty was definitely going to scare Irene.