Mecha Chapter 175: District D

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Lhachril

 

“Your brother?” Luo XiaoLou was wide-eyed, he had heard from Yuan Nuo before, Yuan Xi’s big brother and Yuan Nuo’s parents were both killed in the war between humans and the exotic beast, that’s why Yuan Xi’s hatred for the exotic beast was so strong. But what’s going on here? And how did Yuan Xi’s big brother’s name end up in a grey hole? Could it be just a coincidence?

Yuan Xi looked very ugly, his hand holding Luo XiaoLou was even trembling slightly.

“Are you sure it’s true -” Luo XiaoLou wrote seriously.

Yuan Xi grabbed Luo XiaoLou’s hand, interrupting Luo XiaoLou’s continued writing and said quickly, “There’s no mistake, it’s even in his handwriting. I can be sure that he wrote those two characters.”

Luo XiaoLou stared worriedly into Yuan Xi’s eyes. His mood swings were too much, and that was not a good sign. They were going through enough hardships every day. The point was that if this wasn’t true, Yuan Xi would be even more devastated.

“No, my brother is here, I feel that way. So, before we leave, I need to find him. Or rather, find a clue that he was here,” seeing Luo XiaoLou’s concern and doubt, Yuan Xi said coldly, as he suppressed something that was stirring in his heart, anger or hatred. Maybe what he would find in the end would be a body or something he didn’t want to accept, but he couldn’t pretend he hadn’t seen it. When he was still very young, Yuan Xi had been convicted of sacrificing himself for missing children in the war. His parents hadn’t said anything in those years, but he could feel their pain. Those people said that they were taken away by the exotic beast, maybe killed, maybe eaten, or maybe they would experience something worse than death.

But they couldn’t get the people back, the pain was worse than the loss of their loved ones, and even though they’d killed so many exotic beasts, or exotic beast affiliates, later in the war, they’d never gotten those loved ones back. For example, Yuan Nuo had to live with them from a very young age, and hadn’t cried since that time when he was a baby, and that was just a microcosm of the entire empire.

The exotic beasts were the mortal enemies of mankind, and since that war, there had been no turning back.

Luo XiaoLou cringed for a moment, pretending not to see the look in Yuan Xi’s eyes while praying that Yuan Xi would not be reminded of his lineage, or it would surely be another grueling and ravaging ordeal.

“However, I won’t let them have the chance to touch my kin again.” While saying so, Yuan Xi’s hand unconsciously rubbed Luo XiaoLou’s body twice, gently and warmly, as if he were the kin he spoke of.

Luo XiaoLou was a little flattered, he even had the urge to stick his tongue out and lick Yuan Xi’s fingers, but he quickly suppressed the urge. It must have been more animal instinct than his own thoughts. This was awful!

Yuan Xi entered the cave and left Luo XiaoLou and 125 behind to go deeper into the cave and presumably find somewhere to vent his anger. Luo XiaoLou actually suspected that Yuan Xi didn’t want to see him for a while.

Luo XiaoLou asked 125 to take out the green cesium, a material that Master Yan had suggested could be used to exercise Spiritual Power, put it in front of him, and then began to feel it. In fact, after a few days of wandering, Spiritual Power had begun to slowly recover from eating and sleeping well, even though he couldn’t become human.

However, without Source of Consciousness Power, his Spiritual Power was still too weak right now, and Luo XiaoLou put all his paws on the green cesium and started combing through the material with his Spiritual Power. Now he couldn’t even cut with Spiritual Power, let alone fuse and duplicate the two skills he had mastered when he had Source of Consciousness power.

It was only a small piece of green cesium, and Luo XiaoLou felt Spiritual Power straining as he combed through it a second time. It was just as painful for him as it would be for someone who was used to spending a lot of money to suddenly limit all their allowance.

125 looked on for a moment and reassured, “Don’t worry, Spiritual Power, like Source of Consciousness Power, will grow slowly as it is honed.”

Luo XiaoLou nodded, took a deep breath, and began to slow down and concentrate more. In the end, he was someone who was used to using Source of Consciousness Power, and Spiritual Power, though not much, was used with great skill and finesse. At least it wouldn’t be like those young people who were just experiencing the existence of Spiritual Power and would waste Spiritual Power in many unnecessary places.

While combing through the third time, Luo XiaoLou’s head began to feel dizzy, a sign that the Spiritual Power was completely consumed, so Luo XiaoLou simply stopped and lay down on the ground to rest.

125, on the other hand, walked around next to him, collecting anything and everything that interested him. Before he knew it, 125 was rummaging through more and more stuff, and he even turned a corner. As he leaned over with his tail up to dig at a rock, the tip of his tail swept over something protruding from the stone wall behind him. The object was the exact same color as the stone wall. Moved involuntarily, it slowly opened its mouth as 125 moved its tail to sweep across it.

After closing his eyes for a while, Luo XiaoLou felt recovered enough to get up and continue combing through the material. Yuan Xi had gone to that extreme to improve his abilities so they could get out sooner. He should at least try to get Yuan Xi out of there, too… He was the reason Yuan Xi was in the gray hole, so Luo XiaoLou thought he was responsible for it.

Luo XiaoLou began to repeat the process, combing through the material over and over again, taking a break only when he was extremely tired. After two hours, Luo XiaoLou felt that the hairs on his body were starting to curl because of his sweating. In the end, he couldn’t hold on any longer and went straight to sleep. Before going to sleep, he thought confusedly that Yuan Xi had forgotten their lunch because he was angry…

He didn’t know how long it took, but the faint smell of blood floated in the air, and Luo XiaoLou’s ears trembled, judging by the sound of footsteps, it was Yuan Xi returning. While he was still in a daze and didn’t have time to open his eyes, a hand touched his stomach.

With the very light touch, Luo XiaoLou spread his limbs even more and stretched his neck.

In this rare moment of warmth between the two of them, an unaware voice suddenly sounded – just as 125 always does, which is why Yuan Xi was determined not to let him sleep at their feet.

Luo XiaoLou immediately rolled over and sat up, looked over at Yuan Xi who was watching him with deep eyes next to him, called out, and ran in the direction of 125’s voice.

Yuan Xi’s voice came from behind him, “Don’t you think it’s always fussing? I bet it hasn’t had any trouble at all.”

Luo XiaoLou however didn’t stop, 125 was still shouting for help in an exaggerated tune, and even if it was always unreliable, he wasn’t going to let the wolf-calling story play out. This was a critical time because 125 had zero combat power and no ability to defend himself.

While running around the corner, Luo XiaoLou saw a green figure running towards him.

The moment he saw Luo XiaoLou appear, 125 realized to his dismay that he couldn’t even climb onto Luo XiaoLou’s shoulders like he used to. He rushed over with no loss of speed, picked up Luo XiaoLou, who was almost as tall as he was, and continued to run for his life, but in his mouth, he started calling for Yuan Xi and continued to scream for help.

Luo XiaoLou was looking over 125’s shoulder, and saw a grey mass was rapidly chasing after him. There were long, thin tentacles, tangling with each other, but moving forward together. He couldn’t tell the head from the tail, but it looked menacing.

“What the hell is that?” Luo XiaoLou lost his voice and then shouted.

“I don’t know! I don’t know! I didn’t do anything!” 125 screamed.

The moment the thing was about to capture the two, a black short sword swept down, and the grey tentacles shrank back as if they were conscious.

Yuan Xi stared guardedly at the grey thing, which didn’t leave, but instead seemed to be watching this side, waiting for an opportunity.

Luo XiaoLou and 125 were standing not far behind Yuan Xi, watching the other side nervously.

The creature appeared to be frozen, but a tentacle was sneaking along the rock wall towards Yuan Xi, and the creature knew how to make a diversion.

Yuan Xi was still staring at the subject opposite him as if he was unaware, but his left hand was behind him, gesturing to Luo XiaoLou and 125 to keep quiet.

In the quiet, weird cave, the gray tentacle finally slowly touched Yuan Xi’s foot, then proudly flicked out a long, thin straw-like tip and quickly stabbed at Yuan Xi’s leg.

Luo XiaoLou and 125’s eyes widened wider and wider, and in that instant, Yuan Xi’s left foot suddenly moved, stepping on the tentacle without hesitation, and then the black sword swung down in a smooth motion, slicing off the tentacle without any courtesy at all.

The entire mass of grey shadow shuddered like sifting chaff, and although it didn’t make any sound, that must have been very painful.

125 whispered in Luo XiaoLou’s ear, “Yuan Xi has suddenly gone black bellied…”

Luo XiaoLou was silent for two seconds, “I don’t think so. It’s happened at least a few times.”

Yuan Xi gave those two a warning-like glance. With all he had going on, damn it, why should he be compassionate with its opponent?

After that, Grey Shadow went mad from his injuries and a bunch of tentacles swung up.

Because the black sword in Yuan Xi’s hand was very powerful, and the fact that Yuan Xi already had some idea of his current physical condition, he actually managed to hold on.

Grey Shadow’s IQ was obviously not as good as Grey Rat’s. At least Grey Rat knew how to run away, but Grey Shadow had no such intention at all and kept tangling with Yuan Xi until only a short section of his tentacles were left to move. Finally, under Yuan Xi’s sword, he was completely immobilized.

However, it took a full afternoon of Yuan Xi’s time! So far, Luo XiaoLou and Yuan Xi hadn’t had time to even have lunch.

Yuan Xi finally killed the thing and laid down where he was. He wasn’t hurt, but he was very tired. 

125 In his guilty state, he didn’t even dare to go over there. Luo XiaoLou took the water and food Yuan Xi handed to him and brought them to Yuan Xi’s mouth before eating himself.

Yuan Xi moved his sore limbs, he wasn’t annoyed. On the contrary, it had been more powerful than a gray rat and inspired him more. “By the way, isn’t Fatty Green a home robot? Cloudy Sky can’t even move, so why is it so cheerful?” Yuan Xi puzzledly studied 125.

God, he was finally doubting it!

125 stiffened all over and stumbled, “Ah, yes, I’m a household robot right! I – I don’t just use energy boxes, I’m partly instrumental. Yes, like the kind of toy that moves when you tighten the wind-up!”

A drop of sweat dripped from Luo XiaoLou’s forehead, 125 Where’s your backbone! Isn’t it because of your exotic beast bloodline that you have the ability to act?

Yuan Xi suspiciously looked at 125 a few more times before turning his attention to something on the ground.

“What the hell is this guy?”

125 came over and turned the body over on the ground, pulled out a grey spherical object from the thing, and peeled away the grey skin on the outside to reveal a white stone.

“An energy stone?” Luo XiaoLou said in surprise. Li Jay had shown them what the energy stone looked like.

Yuan Xi took it over and looked at it, picked up the tentacles on the ground to observe it, and said, “It seems that this grey thing is the guardian plant of the energy stone, and we got an energy stone by accident.”

That was good, as they were going to District D in two days anyway.

Taking the two grey rat corpses with them, Yuan Xi and Luo XiaoLou went back to Out of Boundary District.

The eyes of the others had changed from contempt to sympathy at the sight of Yuan Xi every time he returned empty-handed.

Yuan Xi shook his head, but when it was time for dinner, Xiao Qiao still insisted on bringing over a meal.

Yuan Xi didn’t refuse, as he was suspicious of the food he didn’t want to change, so he may as well pay for the meal with something else tomorrow.

The next day, Yuan Xi went back to the Grizzly Cave. This time, there were a few thugs at the entrance of the cave, but they saw that Yuan Xi was really only hunting rats before leaving. They were about to conduct a screening test, and they paid more attention to the energy stones, but had little interest in other supplies.

On this day, Yuan Xi had killed seven gray rats. Firstly because he had figured out a set of simple moves, and secondly because he already knew the rats too well, knowing their habits and weaknesses.

Luo XiaoLou, on the other hand, had thoroughly groomed the green cesium piece, and he switched to another. To his surprise, each time he drained the Spiritual Power and restarted it after a break, it seemed to increase slightly, but it was so small that he observed it several times before he was sure.

That night, Yuan Xi returned with more water and a small amount of food along with it. The nutrition pills didn’t taste as good as the food after all.

 

On the last day, Yuan Xi finally entered the already crowded Level 1 Energy Stone area.

Bypassing the busy crowd, Yuan Xi walked inside, a few people behind him gave each other a wink, and one person snuck up behind Yuan Xi.

The man saw that Yuan Xi had found a quiet corner to start attacking a guardian animal, and skimmed the time it would take to fight, alone. After ten minutes of waiting, he skulked back and forth a few times and turned to leave.

It was only when he left, that 125 poked his head out of the side and took back the snake vine in his hand. It was another surprise that the snake vines in 125’s captivity had adapted well to the environment, and had come out of 125’s small warehouse as if they were alive and well, but now they had become natural protective gear.

Yuan Xi didn’t even look at those people. If they really dared to come up and rob, the worst that could happen is to practice. This kind of thing must not be tolerated. No matter what reason they used, if there was a first time there would be a second time.

Guarding animals seemed to be a bit easier to deal with than guarding plants. Yuan Xi had killed two in one day and still had an hour before it was time to leave. Given that he didn’t have time to kill another one, Yuan Xi simply chose to go back early, three Level 1 Energy Stones were enough for him.

The others were collectively going to fight the energy stones, but it wasn’t difficult to get them all together for a long time. The reason they came over every day was because they had to pay one energy stone a day after entering District D, which was the only thing they really couldn’t afford to consume. If they were kicked out because they couldn’t afford to pay, they would have to pay three Level 1 Energy Stones to go back in.

As Yuan Xi left, a few thugs followed behind him for a while and finally got together to mutter.

“There’s no energy response, looks like this kid didn’t hit a single one.”

“Yeah, why is he so weak?”

“I think he’s probably already made up his mind to become a servant, with that look, tsk.”

Yuan Xi didn’t hear. 

That night though he didn’t change his food, Li Jay and Xiao Qiao had invited him to join them for dinner. Li Jay said it was probably the last meal together, as they were going into District D tomorrow.

Yuan Xi said nothing.

Both Li Jay and Xiao Qiao shook their heads inwardly at Yuan Xi’s act of feeding the pet in his arms at the dinner table.

By the next day, Li Jay had packed up, and Xiao Qiao, fearing the inconvenience, wore Li Jay’s clothes and hat, disguised as a teenager. The first thing to do was take a look at the wide streets, the neat houses and the peace and prosperity of the neighborhood.

Li Jay had sharp ears and heard the grumbling of several people behind him.

“Damn, that kid actually came in. He was blinded that day!”

“That’s right, and I don’t know how he got it together in three days.”

“Or maybe someone sent it.”

 

Li Jay turned back sharply and saw Yuan Xi walking forward leisurely and elegantly holding a white furred animal, and his change of clothes made him even more handsome.