First Interstellar Guide Chapter 90: Horologium Constellation

Chapter 90: Horologium Constellation

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Marshal Qin Xiao and his team of six flew secretly to the Resource Planet in the Horologium Constellation aboard the starship that General Lu Tingyu had once used. From a distance, the planet looked like a sapphire floating in the universe.

Qin Xiao said, “60% of the surface area of this planet is covered by oceans. We’ll find a safe place to land first, then figure out how to explore the ocean.”

The starship quickly pierced through the atmosphere and arrived above the planet. Having experienced the ambush incident with the Dorado Constellation before, everyone was extremely cautious this time. Hummingbird and Tang Ce first flew around in a small aircraft to scout, confirming that the ground was safe before allowing the starship to land.

This planet was quite peculiar. The surface only had some small plants, like weeds growing in the wilderness.

When the six arrived at the seaside, they couldn’t see any signs of life in the clear ocean. There were no shells or crabs on the beach either. Qin Xiao furrowed his brow in confusion and looked at Tang Ce, saying, “Lieutenant Tang, you go and explore first.”

Tang Ce replied, “Yes!”

When she heard Tang Ce being addressed as “Lieutenant Tang,” Hummingbird widened her eyes slightly and looked at Tang Ce, “Xiao Tang?”

Tang Ce scratched his head with a smile, “Sorry, I was sent by the Marshal. Don’t be mad, sis, I’m also on a special mission.”

Qin Xiao explained, “He’s Lieutenant Tang Ce from the Starlight Legion. You might not be familiar with him.”

Hummingbird and the Zhao brothers exchanged glances, puzzled. No wonder this “recent graduate from the military academy” had such remarkable abilities. He was obviously sent by the Marshal. Thinking back to the time when Lu Zexuan “went on a killing spree” and Tang Ce pretended to be dead in advance, they suddenly realized—he must have known about Yu Ran and Lu Zexuan’s plan long ago.

However, during his time in the Eagle Special Forces, he had always helped his teammates. When they were ambushed in the Dorado Constellation, it was Tang Ce who saved Hummingbird’s life. Thinking of this, Hummingbird couldn’t help but remind him, “Be careful, and if you need support, contact us immediately.”

Tang Ce replied, “Don’t worry!”

The ability of the Chameleon Tree Lizard, a Spirit Body of A+ level, might not be as powerful as an S-class, but its abilities were extremely strong. This was why Qin Xiao specifically sought out Tang Ce from the Red Spider Star to assist him. With the ability to become a “Chameleon Tree Lizard,” Tang Ce could adapt to any environment, whether it was high temperatures, cold temperatures, deserts, or oceans. He could change his appearance and regulate his body temperature, making this ability very useful when exploring unfamiliar environments.

Almost the moment he entered the water, Tang Ce’s body quickly merged with the seawater, becoming transparent. At the same time, he adjusted his body temperature to match that of the seawater.

Standing on the beach, Qin Xiao could hardly see where Tang Ce was. Through the earpiece, Tang Ce’s voice came, “The water temperature is around 3 degrees, a bit cold. I’ll dive into the deep sea first and take a look.”

Qin Xiao said, “Be careful. If you encounter any unknown creatures, don’t get too close.”

“Understood.” When Tang Ce led the Starlight Corps to scout the galactic creature Ball years ago, he had also seen many oceanic areas. However, the sea he saw today was very strange.

In a normal ocean, there should be a complete marine ecosystem with large and small fish, shrimps, seaweed, and other marine life. However, this area of the ocean was like dead water, with no signs of any life. The quiet ocean instead made people feel uneasy, as if something was sleeping at the bottom of the sea.

Tang Ce continued to cautiously dive deeper. This area of the sea was very deep, and he dove for a long time without seeing any signs of life. Unwilling to give up, he continued to dive deeper until he reached the seabed, one kilometer below.

The scene before him made Tang Ce break out in a cold sweat—there was actually a huge, indescribable monster lurking at the bottom of the sea! It was like an octopus magnified dozens of times, yet it also resembled a coiled group of snakes. It had many dark brown tentacles twisted and entangled together, covered with dense black spots.

It seemed to be sleeping. Tang Ce’s heart tightened, and he quickly left the seabed.

On the shore, the others were anxiously waiting. When they saw Tang Ce emerge, Marshal Qin Xiao hurried forward and asked, “How was it? What did you find?”

Tang Ce described, “I didn’t see any other fish in the ocean. I found a huge monster at the bottom of the sea, like an enlarged octopus or a group of snakes coiled together. It has many brown tentacles covered in black spots. When I saw it, it didn’t react at all, as if it were asleep.”

Qin Xiao’s expression changed slightly upon hearing this—Ranran’s speculation was probably correct. Years ago, when the Sun Special Forces came to this planet, they had fierce battles with the terrifying creatures in the ocean, resulting in the death of many sentinels. Ludwig, who was parasitized by these creatures, was brought to the human world by General Otis, who knows what kind of deal he made with them.

Qin Xiao took a deep breath and said, “We need to understand this creature as much as possible. Lieutenant Tang, Chief Zhu, Hummingbird, and Zhao Quan, you four come with me to explore the depths of the ocean. Zhao Feng, you fly the starship above the ocean and be ready to support us at any time.”

The four immediately prepared themselves, tightening their weapons in their hands.

Spider, Hummingbird, and Vulture, these Spirit Bodies, do not have the ability to survive in the ocean. However, Qin Xiao, being an S+ level Guide, possesses a powerful Deep-Sea Jellyfish Spirit Body. When Spirit Bodies work together in combat, he can make the jellyfish form transparent bubbles, enveloping the team, allowing them to invisibly dive into the deep sea.

Of course, the coordinated combat of Spirit Bodies doubles the consumption of mental energy, and allowing so many people to be invisible at once, Qin Xiao can only maintain it for half an hour at most. However, Tang Ce has already scouted the location in advance, so they head straight to their destination, and half an hour should be enough.

Tang Ce led the way, with the others following behind. However, when Tang Ce arrived at the deep sea based on his memory, he was surprised to find… nothing! How could this be? Just moments ago, he had seen a massive monster lurking there, and now, within 10 minutes, there was nothing?

Qin Xiao sensed that something was wrong and immediately commanded through mental tendrils in everyone’s minds, “Don’t move, clear your minds, and control your emotions!”

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, a huge brown monster suddenly appeared above them. It floated in the sea, slowly swimming, its countless tentacles spreading out like petals around it. These tentacles were so numerous that they couldn’t even be counted, and the “black spots” on Tang Ce’s mentioned tentacles were actually pairs of… eyes!

When Tang Ce had come down just now, it had been asleep, but now it seemed to have awakened.

Marshal Qin Xiao enveloped everyone with transparent jellyfish, using the Guide’s invisibility ability to eliminate their presence from the consciousness level, so it didn’t perceive the presence of several humans in the ocean.

Qin Xiao instructed everyone to clear their minds, fearing that this highly intelligent creature might sense human emotions. The group stood stiffly at the bottom of the sea, watching as the monster slowly floated over their heads. Its countless eyes stared in their direction, making their hearts pound. Fortunately, they were all elite sentinels with rich combat experience; otherwise, they might have been frightened to death.

The size of the creature was beyond imagination. It had too many eyes, and they couldn’t even see its head. They only felt that the dense tentacles were swimming forward above their heads. After swimming for more than ten minutes, they finally saw its tail.

They thought it would leave, but it slowly swam back. Then, they witnessed an extremely disgusting scene—

Its tentacles suddenly began to break apart, one after another falling to the depths of the sea like a torrential rain, and then, those broken tentacles, like agile little snakes, quickly swam and grew on the seabed, then split into more tentacles.

The group stared in shock.

What was it doing? Those broken tentacles quickly turned into little monsters. Was this how it parasitized? By parasitizing in the human body through broken tentacles, then, the parasitic creatures would slowly grow, devouring the host’s consciousness?

Thinking of Ludwig’s body containing such a terrifying monster, even Qin Xiao, who had extremely strong psychological endurance, couldn’t help but shiver, let alone the others.

The strong emotional fluctuations at the bottom of the sea seemed to alert the creature to something. It suddenly stopped self-splitting, and countless eyes looked in Qin Xiao’s direction.

Qin Xiao’s heart tightened, and he didn’t hesitate to command, “It has discovered us, retreat quickly!”

The tentacles, as if they had their own intelligence, contracted together and suddenly surrounded them tightly!

There were too many tentacles of the monster, densely surrounding them. It was almost instantaneous that they were firmly entangled. Seeing the Marshal being dragged into the deep sea by the tentacles, Zhu Tianyi drew his electromagnetic knife and shouted, “Protect the Marshal!”

The Black Spider appeared at his side, its eight sharp claws like blades, cutting off the tentacles that bound the Marshal. Seizing the opportunity, Hummingbird swiftly swam to the top of the monster, tightly grabbing one of its tentacles, and attacking it from behind.

Zhao Quan rushed over through the gap created by Zhu Tianyi, grabbing the Marshal’s arm and pulling him upward. However, Qin Xiao’s legs were tightly entangled by the tentacles and couldn’t be pulled.

Although these things seemed soft, they were difficult to break free from when entangled. Zhu Tianyi reacted quickly. He ordered the spider to clear a path, then rushed to the Marshal’s side and swiftly cut off the tentacles around Qin Xiao with his blade.

At the same time, Hummingbird fought agilely from above, quickly cutting open a path to the sea surface. She said, “Brother Zhao, this way!”

Taking advantage of the situation, Zhao Quan pulled the Marshal out of the entanglement.

In Tang Ce’s mind came Qin Xiao’s calm voice, “Tang Ce, find out where its head is!”

Receiving the order, Tang Ce immediately made his body change color like the tentacles. He simulated a tentacle and quickly approached the monster’s body. There were too many tentacles of the monster, and it didn’t notice a human among them. Tang Ce made his body look like a tentacle, and the surrounding tentacles seemed to think he was an ally and didn’t attack him. He took the opportunity to move deeper. Amidst the layers of tentacles, he finally saw a round eye the size of a football.

… Was this its head?

Before Tang Ce could take action, the monster seemed to sense danger and immediately used its numerous tentacles to protect the “eye.”

Qin Xiao said, “Retreat quickly!”

Hummingbird, the fastest among them, led the way, while Zhao Quan carried the Marshal swiftly upward. Tang Ce, blending seamlessly with the seawater, broke free from the encirclement before being caught. Zhu Tianyi’s spider formed a huge web, responsible for covering the rear and intercepting the attacks of the tentacles.

The five of them quickly escaped from the monster and swam towards the surface of the sea.

Zhao Feng, who had sensed the danger, had already brought the starship over. Zhao Quan leaped with the Marshal onto the flying boat, and the others quickly followed suit. The starship opened its hatch, and the four flying boats swiftly returned to the mothership.

Almost the moment they reached the starship, the massive monster emerged from the water surface behind them. When it spread its body, it almost covered several kilometers of the sea area. The newly spawned little monsters floated up and surrounded it. Its dark brown tentacles angrily reached toward the sky, almost brushing past the bottom of the starship!

If they hadn’t escaped fast enough, their starship would have been dragged into the depths of the sea! The group watched in horror at the scene below their feet. The monster made strange sounds from its mouth.

Qin Xiao sensed through mental tendrils and surprisingly understood the signal it transmitted.

“[Humans, you’re disturbing me again.]”

“[You humans are really damned!]”

Listening to the cold voice in his mind, Qin Xiao felt a chill in his heart. Disturbing it again? So, indeed, it was the special forces of the Sunday Legion who accidentally woke it up while developing the resource star, even injuring it. In a fit of anger, it completely annihilated the Sunday Legion and let its tentacles parasitize human bodies?