Chapter 35: I shouldn’t have lured Lin Xu onto the Victoria without telling him what I knew.
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
Lin Xu had heard the term New Life faction in a conversation between Katherine and Heinrich, when Katherine described the group as “old aristocrats, Imperial supremacists, human supremacists”.
Its ” new life ” was probably a long time ago.
Heinrich, “New Life faction is not a definite group, it is… It is more like a belief. New Life, is a reference to the time when human beings in exile in the universe established the Empire to bring about the rebirth of human civilization. The Ark Fleet brought out a small population from ancient Earth, and some people left with the Exiled Alliance on the way. After the Empire was established, the human population exploded, and those who held power back then have survived to this day under the title of nobility, and their power originated from the Empire and humans. For this reason, they firmly uphold the Imperial system, opposed to human intermarriage with extraterrestrials.”
“What happened on the Ark Fleet?” Lin Xu’s voice sounded like ice, and as Heinrich explained, thinking gradually calmed him down.
If the history of the Ark Fleet was just a singable, sweeping epic of voyages, Imperial had no reason to gloss over it, and now, the official Imperial history books were vague about the entire period of the Ark Fleet.
This gap in historical facts attracted many historical scholars to investigate, but the Star Ocean was so vast, and human space positioning technology was so backward, the routes could not be recorded. Many artifacts and documents that could prove the history were lost in the vast universe.
The perception of the cause, passage, and result of the Ark’s voyage was full of speculation and imagination, and the public even felt that the official Imperial history books seemed more reliable.
Now, as humanity approaches the return of its home planet, the mystery of history will be unveiled, but the New Life faction, which witnessed the rise of the Empire, began to assassinate the researchers of ancient Earth.
But… Not all of them, but their targets were targeted.
Marianna…why Marianna? Her research direction was just ancient Earth literature, almost no contact with the history of the Ark fleet. Or, did she come into contact with something unusual?
Chen Jinshan volunteered to be transferred to the Michael Line after his wife’s death, and Lin Xu at first thought he was afraid of the old scenario, but now he’s connected to the Haven clues since the Michael Line – does Chen Jinshan know anything?
Heinrich answered Lin Xu’s question honestly, “I don’t know.”
Zhou Pingbo looked up and added, “Three thousand years have passed, who else can remember but the New Life faction itself?”
Ika, who was listening quietly, pressed his fingers on his necklace.
“So…” Lin Xu thought of another question, “New Life faction includes almost all the old nobles that have been passed down since the establishment of the Empire?”
“Yes. And the royal families.”
Lin Xu’s jaw tightened, but Heinrich had to ask, “Lin Xu, with the direct killers of Lady Marianna dead and the New Life faction behind the plan, what do you want to do?”
Do you want to stop there? Or do you want to go all the way down and take revenge on the New Life faction and turn Capital Star upside down?
The latter was almost impossible. Under the combined pressure of hundreds of old noble families of Capital Star, it was impossible to bring them down by political and legal means, especially when even the Emperor, who was the supreme power of the Empire, was also a New Life faction. The late arrival of the Crown Prince at the banquet was a tacit approval.
“Captial Star…” Lin Xu murmured contemplatively.
Ika heard his ramblings and said, “I can hack into the Empire’s annihilator system and fire at Capital Star’s core to annihilate the entire planet, Dr. Lin, do you need it?”
Ika was calm and serious, as if he was doing an objective math problem, and if Lin Xu said yes, he might actually put it into action.
Lin Xu looked at him with this expression and froze for a moment, while Zhou Pingbo held his forehead, “Ika, calm down.”
Ika blinked, wanting to say that he was calm and that he wouldn’t be surprised if God’s Crown wanted to destroy a planet.
“No.” Lin Xu just thought the kid was joking with him and his thoughts returned to the New Life faction, “I need to at least find out exactly who assigned the mission to kill Marianna and who is after me and Ryan.”
Zhou Pingbo helped Heinrich cut the end of the stitches and cleaned up the blood stains near the purple and swollen wound with alcohol swabs, and finally applied a layer of repair gel to isolate the bacterial infection.
He took off the blood-stained medical gloves and threw them into the waste tray. Following his movements, Lin Xu saw a few silvery white dragon scales in the tray, shining with a soft pearl-like luster amidst the blood.
Lin Xu squeezed his knees, his knuckles turning white, forcing his gaze away from the richly energized dragon scales on the tray.
Zhou Pingbo reminded him that there was another wave of enemies, “The latest attacker is from Haven, not Capital Star.”
Heinrich sensed that Lin Xu seemed a little repulsed by the grisly wound, his eyes leaving at the touch of a button, he withdrew his arm after Zhou Pingbo finished his treatment and covered the wound with his military jacket, covering the smell of vetiver as the heat of the blood thickened.
Lin Xu watched Heinrich’s movements and felt a little sorry again, “Can you confirm that Garier and the previous bomb attack held the same purpose? The Star Pirates attack sent by the New Life faction was not to kill Heinrich.”
The New Life faction doesn’t want anyone to find out the secret they want to hide and shake up Imperial’s reign, so what about Garier and these people? It wasn’t enough to kill Lin Xu to avoid the secret being revealed, they even wanted Heinrich dead!
“At least partly the same, wanted to muddy the waters of Abyss Fleet and the expedition.” Heinrich said, “but they all have concerns for the benefit of not having a New Life faction.”
“Haven comes with the crazies…” Zhou Pingbo lamented that both sending bombs to the Victoria and assassinating Heinrich in public were too crazy and reckless, at least the New Life faction still knew how to use long-range sniping and close range poisoning to ensure success.
After saying that, Zhou Pingbo reacted at once and quickly apologized to Ika, “I didn’t mean to call you crazy.”
Ika didn’t care too much and just said, “Haven is big, the population is no less than Capital Star, the ideas are free, and people with any opinion can study and work here. The attackers could have come from just one of those populations.”
“Memo Labs, or the other three? We’ll find out when Garier comes to his senses.” Zhou Pingbo sighed, “As crazy as they are, these people should be better off than the New Life faction, and the assassination of the Imperial Marshal’s name alone is enough to arrest all the participants involved.”
Indeed, the New Life faction’s actions have always been cautious, and because of the intricacies of the forces, it was difficult to find out what to do. But the attackers from Haven’s near desperation allowed Lin Xu to achieve the goal of taking the party invitation – they captured Garier.
…
Several people did not continue to talk much, probably about certain military secrets that Heinrich was not comfortable talking about. Before Lin Xu got up to leave, he paused beside Zhou Pingbo, biting his lower lip for a moment before looking at Heinrich, “Marshal, can I have one of your dragon scales?”
He couldn’t get Heinrich’s scale out of his head almost the whole time. Heinrich looked at the scale, and then at Lin Xu, whose lips were red from biting, and whose aura of indifference and resistance was slightly softened by the request.
Heinrich sat up in silence, took out the scalpel and disinfectant from the medicine box in Zhou Pingbo’s hand, cleaned the most complete and beautiful piece of scale on the plate, and handed it to Lin Xu.
“Thanks.”
Heinrich noticed that the corners of Lin Xu’s lips seemed to curl. This was rare, and Zhou Pingbo expected Heinrich to say something more to distance himself, but instead Heinrich lowered his eyebrows and remarked, “Take your time.”
Lin Xu, who had gotten the scale, left without a moment’s hesitation, but to Zhou Pingbo, this was an expression of his displeasure at Heinrich’s implicitly evasive words. He questioned Heinrich almost bitterly, “What are you doing? Driving people away before they’ve said a few words? You’re destined to be single for life!”
Heinrich’s eyes were dark and uncertain, and Zhou Pingbo’s tone did not stir up any ripples in his cold expression. After a while, Zhou Pingbo was indignantly packing up the medical equipment for Heinrich, when he suddenly heard a raspy and confused voice behind him, “I don’t think I should do this to Lin Xu.”
“You really shouldn’t. How can you use your position to give an eviction order like that?”
“I shouldn’t have lured Lin Xu onto the Victoria by hiding what I knew about him.” Heinrich’s voice was muffled in his chest, “We knew from the beginning that the manipulator behind these times was the New Life faction, but it wasn’t until Lin Xu heard Katherine Hill’s words and learned of the New Life faction’s existence that I decided to tell him when I felt I couldn’t hide it.
“He was not interested in me, or even disgusted, and did not care about the Ancient Earth expedition project. I just took advantage of his desire to investigate Marianna’s killer and show part of the information I knew, which led him to come here and meet so many dangers…just so I could see him often myself. But there’s nothing I can do about the New Life faction now.”
Heinrich Chu could not have stormed the Capital Star Imperial City with the Abyss Fleet and blasted the Emperor with a single shot. Zhou Pingbo, who hadn’t heard Heinrich say so much in a long time, turned to look at Heinrich, whose breath was low, in momentary surprise.
He and Heinrich’s mother were of the same generation, a little younger, when they came to the Victoria…no, this flagship of the Abyss Fleet was still called the Katrina, named after the designer of the starship.
At that time, Heinrich was only eight years old, and Zhou Pingbo found that there was little difference between a human-dragon hybrid child and an ordinary human child, except that the physical quality and mental energy of the child were far superior to those of a normal human, and that he was equally attached to his parents.
Heinrich began to become silent, and in the rain of blood from one battle to the next, he accumulated a lot of cold, hard frost and decisive killing to wrap himself in, killing and intimidating.
Abyss Fleet’s discipline was never as strict as when Heinrich was Marshal, he was cold, arrogant and unfeeling, even Arnold, the lieutenant who had been with him for the longest time, kept a tense spirit. Lin Xu was a different person.
Zhou Pingbo found him completely unafraid of Heinrich’s ready coldness, nor did he look at him differently because of the appalling title the public placed on Heinrich’s head. Even compared to Lin Xu’s non-aggressive, blandly silent, stubbornly flexible resistance, Heinrich’s surrounding aura had the potential to be relatable. Heinrich would certainly like him.
Lin Xu was a beta, and Heinrich was unable to confirm his feelings through pheromone and physical reactions. But now not only did he find out, he was also troubled.
“So are you going to give up, or compensate?”
—
Lin Xu returned to Room 004 with the silver and white dragon scale, feeling still wrapped in vetiver’s scent, and gasped with his back against the door, asking Ruth to turn up the ventilation system and try to suppress the instinctive excitement. But with the scale still in his hands, it was hard for him to calm down.
Lin Xu fell back on the bed and peered at the dragon scale against the light cast overhead, which Ruth automatically dimmed for him, the bright light illuminating the scale making it almost transparent, like thin clouds surging with the gusty wind at sunset on Earth.
Fingertips brushed over the surface of the dragon scale, and could feel the wave pattern generated by the growth. Lin Xu’s sharp nails also grew out, fingertips scraped over the scale, emitting a harsh sound as if metal rubbing against each other, making people’s arms shiver. But the surface of the dragon scales did not leave half a trace.
Lin Xu sat up and used his maximum strength to break the dragon scale, but to no avail, the silver and white dragon scale’s exquisite appearance was not consistent with the sturdiness.
He had no choice, the energy from the dragon scales almost burned Lin Xu’s heart, he opened his mouth and forcefully bit the center of the scales with his sharp canine teeth.
Ka-cha…
The dragon scale shattered into several pieces, half of which remained in Lin Xu’s mouth, crushed by the sharp edges of his teeth, and the hidden energy was gradually released. It was cold in his mouth, like a strong mint, but when it slid into his stomach, it burned hot, like a very strong wine, and rushed back to Lin Xu’s head. He rolled dizzily on the bed, ready to fall asleep in a drunken stupor.
There was a sudden knock on the door. Heinrich’s voice came over the visitor communication channel, “Lin Xu, it’s me, Heinrich Chu.”
The background sound was rabbit-cat’s pitiful call.
The author has something to say.
In the future, in order to experience being wrapped by Og’s sharp teeth, Marshal must be covered with scales to do so.
I’m going to let Marshal see Lin Xu’s tail within five chapters.
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