Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Xia Fei’s heart sank upon hearing the words ‘self-destruct’. Who initiated the self-destruct sequence?
The space station was probably controlled remotely by Bosingwa, and he could not have been the one to initiate the self-destruct sequence. Someone must have taken over the remote control and initiated the self-destruct.
Thinking back on the Blood Raiders’ infiltration and several Adjudicators’ death, Xia Fei came to the conclusion that the Adjudicators from the classifieds investigation department must have inadvertently stumbled upon the Blood Raiders in the course of their investigation, which resulted in them being killed summarily to keep their mouths shut.
And when his group arrived, the Blood Raiders decided to destroy the entire space station once they concluded that they could not retreat in time. This would destroy the space station along with all the evidence.
Realizing this, Xia Fei decided to ignore Xiao Haili, who was in a battle to the death, as long as he could keep his own.
Xia Fei ran and soon arrived at the elevator at one side of the warehouse. However, there was not even a light indicating that he pressed a button when he tried to call the elevator.
“I’m trapped.”
It was the same situation when he arrived at another elevator. None of the elevator doors opened, and the warehouse was now sealed from the outside.
This space station was huge, and if it exploded, there was no way anyone inside of it could survive.
At this moment, Xia Fei remembered about the space station emergency handbook that Qin Mang had handed to him. The handbook specified emergency exits that all space stations should have. These exits were usually hidden in secluded locations that even the staff on the space station might not come to know the existence of.
Xia Fei accessed the microcomputer as fast as he could to bring up the emergency handbook.
“Found it!” Xia Fei saw that there should be air ventilation ducts in the ceiling of the warehouse, and he should be able to travel through them to escape.
Xia Fei then found the opening to the ventilation duct two hundred meters to his left, but it was four meters above the ground and closed behind a set of shutters.
Pushing off the ground, Xia Fei leaped in the air. He made a dozen or so rapid cuts with Chasing Light and chopped the shutter into pieces.
With one hand on the ventilation duct, Xia Fei flipped himself upward and managed to get in.
The ventilation duct was so dusty that he could barely breathe, but Xia Fei did not dwell on all this. He crouched low and scrambled along the duct as best as he could, all in an effort to escape.
The ducts were of varying sizes. Sometimes, Xia Fei could stand up in them, while at other times, he found himself having great difficulty even squeezing himself through the narrower segments.
In front of him was a narrow duct that went along for a hundred or so meters long. Xia Fei pushed himself off with a powerful stomp and dove into the duct, straight as an arrow with his arms outstretched.
Xia Fei’s leap brought him nearly one hundred meters forward, and the exit was now in sight.
With his arms on either side, Xia Fei struggled to wriggle himself out of the pipes.
That was when Xia Fei heard the sound of a commotion on his left. Looking through the shutters that looked out into a massive room, he spotted eight Blood Raiders moving things out of the room in a hurry.
There was a Blood Raider with golden scales that seemed to be in charge. He was much taller than the ones he had seen earlier, and his tail, in particular, was notably long and thick like a python.
“Move the humans onto the ship quickly. The space station is about to explode,” commanded the golden Blood Raider with a deep voice.
“Human?” This caught Xia Fei’s attention. Upon closer examination, the Blood Raider seemed to be carrying metal alloy boxes, and by the looks of it, each of them appeared to be human coffins.
The coffins were arranged neatly on some unknown equipment, and there were two, thick pipes connected to each coffin.
A Blood Raider had very brutishly ripped off one of the pipes, and the white gas that came out of it quickly froze his leg. The Blood Raider howled in pain as he begged for his companions to help him.
It seemed that the coffins were on something that kept them cool. It was highly possible that the coffins contained a cryogenically-preserved human.
When that golden Blood Raider noticed this, he carried the coffin with one hand and used his other hand to stab through the head of the clumsy Blood Raider.
“Useless.”
The golden Blood Raider jammed all five fingers into the skull, and that clumsy Blood Raider died right then and there, without even managing to utter a sound.
“Hmph!” The golden Blood Raider walked toward the exit with one coffin in hand, completely unconcerned with the death of his subordinate.
This was when the synthetic female voice spoke again. “Warning! The space station will self-destruct in twenty-five minutes. All staff at hand, please evacuate from the space station immediately.”
Xia Fei was momentarily caught up with this before he continued his effortful crawl toward the exit once more. Right now, using what time he had to escape with his life was of a higher priority. As for finding out if there were real humans inside those coffins or learning the reason behind the Blood Raiders capturing those humans, it was best if he waited until he was safe.
The word ‘human’ stuck in Xia Fei’s mind as he ran; all of a sudden, a question popped into his head. Xiaoyu was also kidnapped out of nowhere; could she be in one of those coffins?
Xia Fei held back his curiosity as he focused on escaping.
The Blood Raiders had the numbers on their side, so there was no point in Xia Fei trying to go head to head against them. Not only would he not have the chance to escape with Xiaoyu, he might even lose his life in the process.
Moreover, the space station was in the middle of a self-destruct sequence. It would actually be a good thing if Xiaoyu was in one of those boxes, for she could at least escape with the Blood Raiders. Furthermore, it was possible that if he attempted to interfere, Xiaoyu could end up being destroyed along with the space station, and by no means was that an outcome he wished to see.
Presently, his only solution was to escape this communication dead zone, summon Lunar Eclipse, and use its superior combat weaponry to stop their ship.
When he arrived at this conclusion, there was no more hesitation in Xia Fei as he sped along the escape route, his eyes filled with determination.
A few moments later, his microcomputer regained its reception, and Xia Fei immediately used it to summon Lunar Eclipse.
Lunar Eclipse was parked just fifty-thousand lightyears away and would arrive in at most ten minutes.
“Bosingwa, what’s your situation?” Xia Fei continued sprinting as he regained contact with Bosingwa.
“Not good; there’s an insectoid battleship that appeared out of nowhere, and we are exchanging fire. What about Haili and Queiroz? Are they still with you?” Bosingwa asked with urgency.
Xia Fei could hear constant explosions coming from the other end, and the video was constantly shaking. Evidently, Bosingwa was in a sticky situation.
“It’s complicated. I’m not sure how Queiroz and Xiao Haili are doing, but I plan on escaping the same way I came in. Can the doors to the landing bay be opened?”
Xia Fei opted out of mentioning his exchange with Xia Haili. He knew that Queiroz was good friends with that guy, and Bosingwa might be unable to accept what had transpired at that time if he mentioned how Xiao Haili had tried to kill him. It would hardly do any good given their current predicament.
Bosingwa was quiet for a few moments before he said, “I’ve lost control of the space station, so I can’t open the bay doors. You’ll have to find a way out of the space station on your own; apologies.”
“Understood,” said Xia Fei. “I’ve summoned my ship; it’s called Lunar Eclipse. Don’t mistake it for a foe later.”
Bosingwa nodded, then asked with a quiver in his voice, “Are Haili and Queiroz alive when you escaped?”
“They are. Sorry.” As Xia Fei was struggling through a narrow passageway, he kept it short and concise.
Bosingwa let out a bitter laugh. “Don’t be. That’s what it’s like being an Adjudicator; you never know when you’ll encounter danger. I’m surrounded by enemies, so there’s no way I can help you out of the space station. Good luck.”
Xia Fei and Bosingwa shared a moment of silence. In the current situation, Bosingwa was in a tough spot as he was enclosed by enemies, whereas Xia Fei was trapped in a space station that was about to explode. There was not much they could do to help each other.
Xia Fei smiled and said, “I wish you good luck as well.”
Out of nowhere, Moon Song appeared on the screen and yelled angrily, “Mr. Xia, I order you to make it back alive!”
Just like that, Xia Fei shut off the communications, choosing to ignore the communication request that Moon Song had sent after the call ended.
Emotions played no role in a moment of life and death such as this. Xia Fei must remain calm and cling on tightly to any chance of escape.
After navigating through the air-ventilation system, Xia Fei arrived at the landing bay twenty-minutes before the self-destruct. A bright warp channel had opened up in space, and Lunar Eclipse arrived at the scene through that wormhole.