Chapter 390
Chapter 390: Docking
As the ship dropped out of hyperspace, it hit a brief, wondrous jolt.
Even though the hull stayed stable and its real-space coordinates never drifted, the instant the space curvature snapped back still threw everyone’s senses out of alignment for a heartbeat. It felt like you were in several different “positions” at once—then all those positions collapsed, razor-thin, into a single fixed point in the real world. For anyone riding faster-than-light for the first time, it was an experience like nothing else.
Outside the huge observation window, the red-blue smear faded fast. The sealed space bubble opened, the last ripples of warp smoothed out, and the stars snapped from that flat, two-dimensional film back into their normal shapes. A starfield completely different from anything near the Grand Void Spiritual Axis filled their view.
Irene pitter-pattered to the window, climbed onto the platform, craned her neck at the magnificent spread of stars, and let out an exaggerated gasp. “Whoa—”
Then she twisted around. “Hey, Yu Sheng, Yu Sheng—where’s Shu Ji?”
As soon as she said it, the starfield beyond the observation window began to drift, and a dim orange-red star slid into view.
“We’re traveling at sublight right now. We should enter the near-star deceleration ring around Shu Ji in about an hour,” Yu Sheng said casually from the captain’s seat. “But Otherworld Hotel can’t land directly on the planet’s surface. There’s no civilian starport here open to a ship of this size, so we’ll dock at the orbital parking station in high orbit and take the shuttle maid down through the atmosphere.”
Irene blinked, caught off guard. “A shuttle maid? This ship has that option?”
“It’s Foxy,” Yu Sheng said.
“I-is that so?”
Beside Yu Sheng, the demon fox girl narrowed her eyes smugly. She looked downright pleased with herself.
On the other side, Zheng Zhi listened to Yu Sheng and Irene, turning his head left and right as if searching for someone to talk to. In the end, he leaned close to Luna—silent and motionless as a statue—and muttered, “When I’m around Brother Yu, I always feel like my imagination isn’t rich enough…”
Luna didn’t respond. She just remained a statue.
After a long ten seconds, Irene finally reacted. She stared at Yu Sheng. “Wait, no. Don’t we have a more normal way to land? Like a small craft or something…”
“Uh, we did have a few,” Yu Sheng said awkwardly. “Then one of the small boats had an accident while transporting the Anka Aila crystal. The other two were damaged when the Special Operations Bureau intercepted us, and the three left in the hangar… I never figured out how to fly them.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “They aren’t on the same system as Otherworld Hotel. They’re standalone hardware. When I took over the big ship, I didn’t take over those little ones, so I’m not synced with them now.”
Irene thought it over. “That’s easy. When you get a chance, go die in the hangar.”
Yu Sheng’s face turned green. “Listen to yourself! Is that something a person would say?!”
He couldn’t help missing the Irene from when they first met. Back then, Little Doll had been so good. She cared whether he lived or died, and she even tried to keep him from dying too often in case there were side effects. When did she start going off the rails like this…?
Yu Sheng pondered for a few seconds and suddenly had the uncomfortable feeling it might be his own fault. After all, currency usually started losing value when you printed too much of it.
“I’ll study how to fly the small ships later,” Yu Sheng said, immediately changing the subject once he realized where that train of thought led. He guided Otherworld Hotel closer to the star Shu Ji orbited and added, “Besides, don’t you think reentering on a nine-tailed silver fox is pretty badass…?”
Irene was easy to sway. “I-is that so?”
Two seconds later, Luna suddenly nodded at Zheng Zhi. “Mm. Yes.”
Zheng Zhi stared. “…?”
At the same time, as the ship continued toward Shu Ji, Immortal Yuan Hao rose from his seat.
He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a neat, square object carved like white jade (don’t ask why it was square). Narrowing his eyes as if sensing something closely, he murmured under his breath. The jade began to glow with a soft, warm light.
Irene leaned forward at once. “Hey, what are you doing?”
“I’m checking whether someone is watching us,” Immortal Yuan Hao said as he opened his eyes, face serious. “Yun Qing Zi may have been operating on Shu Ji for years. We have to be careful.”
Irene’s eyes went wide. “No way… That’s this extreme? We’re still slowing down in space. Can that bastard lock onto someone from that far away?”
“Don’t underestimate those ancient powerhouses,” Immortal Yuan Hao said solemnly, shaking his head. “In the chaotic years when histories were recast and heaven and earth were remade, many of them held a planet together by sheer force of will and protected countless lives. They had all kinds of bizarre methods. Some ancient secret arts would seem to defy reason to people today.”
Irene went quiet.
Yu Sheng didn’t speak either. He silently raised his sync level with Otherworld Hotel again, powered up the shipwide radar, and began scanning for anything abnormal: high-energy small units nearby, probing signals aimed at the ship, anything out of place.
Yu Sheng didn’t know whether Yun Qing Zi could truly lock onto someone from an astronomical unit away, but he was piloting a black-tech ship that could rank among the best in the universe. The people from Holy Revere Hermitage built this thing for special-ops infiltration across major civilization circles; this radar suite wasn’t for show.
“No threatening units detected, and no unauthorized signal illumination,” Yu Sheng said after a moment, shaking his head. “We detected five directional signals. Two are identification and welcome messages from Shu Ji’s surface, one is navigation from the orbital parking station, and the other two are from the Traffic Bureau—reminding me not to drink while piloting and warning that speeding inside the near-star deceleration ring costs a five-thousand spirit-stone fine.”
Immortal Yuan Hao smacked his lips. “Back in my day, we only fined three thousand.”
No one really dared ask how he knew that so clearly.
The ship flew at sublight for a while. The orange-red star gradually slid behind the observation window, and a beautiful gray-blue planet appeared ahead along the route. Otherworld Hotel adjusted its attitude again and, under the guidance signal, began closing in on an orbital parking station near the planet while making the final terminal deceleration.
The complex engine array kept switching operating modes. The ship went through a series of slowdowns and tiny corrections, finally drawing near the docking facility that floated quietly in the blackness of space—a massive tower linked to many large platforms.
The tower and its surrounding platforms still showed faint traces of the cultivation era in their style. Cloud motifs and talisman patterns ran through the details, clearly from the Grand Void Spiritual Axis, but the overall look was different from most buildings on the Grand Void Star. This orbital station leaned more toward plain practicality, with a tough, clean framework and a tower structure much closer to the “space architecture” Yu Sheng remembered.
Even in the relatively “closed” Featherwing Starfield, planets near the border had been influenced by the outside world. This station in Shu Ji’s high orbit carried some shadowspawn from nearby civilization circles—records suggested it was most influenced by the Alglade people.
Under Yu Sheng’s precise control, the huge Otherworld Hotel docked with unbelievable flexibility and accuracy along the edge of a large platform near the tower. It barely needed the traction system to complete the connection. Some time passed—mostly because Yu Sheng kept checking the manual to make sure his actions really met safety standards—before Otherworld Hotel finally sent a “connection stable” signal to the station and, per regulations, requested guides to come aboard.
The hatch on the ship’s underside opened, and Yu Sheng stepped out as a pedestrian, walking onto the docking platform’s connecting bridge.
It was an open structure that looked completely exposed to space. Neither the bridge nor the platform at the far end had any dome-like or armored protective structures, and yet the whole area had normal gravity and atmosphere. Some invisible life-support field blanketed everything, keeping the environment comfortable.
Several guides in light-gray starport uniforms were already waiting. They weren’t registered cultivators—just ordinary people who worked at this facility.
As soon as they saw someone descend from the massive ship, they hurried over to verify Yu Sheng’s captain credentials (issued by the Borderland) and his pass (issued by the Grand Void Spiritual Axis). Then the lead guide couldn’t help praising him. “As expected of a captain from the Borderland. Even controlling such a huge ship, you’re still so nimble. Normally, when a boat this big enters port, even with artifact spirit and machine spirit assistance, it takes a good hour or two to get it done.”
Hearing that, Yu Sheng puffed up with pride and poked Little Doll on his shoulder. “See? I told you my piloting is good.”
Irene rolled her eyes. “Sure. If you’re basically driving yourself and still manage to ram the dock, you’d better go find a neurologist.”
Yu Sheng ignored Little Doll’s usual snide tone and, a bit clumsily, followed the guide’s instructions to complete the docking registration for a large ship. All the fees were charged to the Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain account.
After the information was registered and verified, the guides visibly relaxed. One of them asked casually, “Are you going straight to Shu Ji? Or do you want to stay at the starport for a few days? Our starport is a decent little attraction. We’ve got a few good markets and restaurants, plus a duty-free mall where you can buy crafts from the Alglade Starfield.”
To be honest, Yu Sheng had just come out of the Grand Void Spiritual Axis, where everything felt like an immortal realm. Hearing a border planet’s starport staff talk to him like this was… unsettling. It was like the art style was stuck on vibration mode.
“We’re here for business and will head straight to the planet’s surface,” Yu Sheng said, choosing his words and recalling the cover story he’d prepared before departure. “We took a commission from Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain and need to go to Ink City.”
“Ink City?” One of the guides raised an eyebrow, sounding almost casual. “Ink City hasn’t been very peaceful these past couple of days.”