Chapter 45#
The Innocent and Naive Fool#
The chaos on the Central Star, which had lasted nearly half a month, finally came to an end this afternoon.
The old-guard forces were deeply rooted after all. After a palace coup, the Imperial Guard suffered heavy casualties. Lu Xing abdicated and was locked in a forbidden room under close supervision, while Earl Lian took the position of Acting Prince Regent and publicly proposed a negotiation request to Gu Xi.
This time, Earl Lian was full of confidence.
He was now the new emperor of the Empire, possessing supreme power. After Lu Xing’s fall, he was the only one who could activate the Star-Destroying Cannon!
Earl Lian firmly believed that even if Gu Xi possessed a massive fleet capable of surrounding the entire Central Star, he would definitely not want to reach the point of a fight to the death.
At the same time, he also secretly ordered the royal private armies stationed in other star systems to rush to the vicinity of the Central Star as quickly as possible. This way, they could attack from inside and out, and Gu Xi wouldn’t last long even if he put up a desperate struggle.
“Friends, believe me,” he had even started hosting a banquet in the palace, inviting high-ranking nobles who were also part of the old-guard forces, “I know you’ve all been suffering from the torture of brainworms recently, but such days will not last much longer!”
He held up his wine glass and laughed drunkenly: “Once I dismantle the military’s power and firmly grasp control in my hands, I’ll have the research department capture that merman alive. I’ll just cut out the restless things in his brain with one stroke and have him sing for everyone in the palace every day!”
Earl Lian had it all planned out. By using that merman, he could effortlessly control the nobles under him and make them obediently follow his orders. Anyone with rebellious thoughts would be thrown out to be tortured into madness by brainworms!
the nobles below looked sluggish, but hearing this, their eyes couldn’t help but light up, and they all began to flatter him for his wisdom.
“Lu Xing, oh Lu Xing, I have to thank you,” Earl Lian sat on the throne and snorted heavily, muttering to himself with a self-satisfied smile, “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be sitting in this position, nor could I train these troublesome fellows to be as obedient as dogs.”
The flashiness and noise of the main hall could not reach the cold and silent forbidden palace.
In the dark and cramped forbidden room, the pale young man was chained by his ankle, unable to move within his small space.
His only remaining intact right eye had also been gouged out and was wrapped in thick white gauze.
Fortunately, Earl Lian believed he couldn’t let him die yet, so he had a doctor wrap it up haphazardly; otherwise, the blood loss alone would have been enough to finish Lu Xing off.
But despite falling to such a state, the young man appeared to have no fear or panic at all.
The corners of his mouth even turned up slightly as he sat in the only corner where he could feel the warmth of the sun, patting his knees and softly humming the ancient ballad Lin Xiaodong had once sung.
His composed manner was as if he were still sitting on that supreme throne.
It was exactly this attitude that made Earl Lian extremely unhappy.
For two whole days and nights, he had deliberately not allowed any attendants to give Lu Xing a single bite of food, and even water was provided only in an amount barely enough to sustain life.
He especially looked forward to the day when Lu Xing couldn’t endure the torment and would kneel down to beg him for mercy.
However, even if he were to die, Earl Lian would never have guessed that before his seat on the throne had even warmed up, the sky over the Central Star completely changed.
In the middle of the night, after receiving news of Gu Xi leading his army to attack, he scrambled out of the harem in a panic, clutching his trousers. As soon as he looked up, he saw that pitch-black ship blotting out the sky and breaking through space.
“How is that possible!?”
Earl Lian roared in disbelief: “Is Gu Xi mad? Does he really want to fight me to the death?”
“Guards! Someone, come quickly!”
But when Earl Lian, holding his breath, took the “key” to activate the Star-Destroying Cannon—which he had personally gouged out from his enemy—and stepped onto the control console again to repeat his old trick, his eyes nearly split with rage to find that his authorization was no longer sufficient!
“Report—Your Majesty, the Star-Destroying Cannon has been activated!”
He turned around abruptly: “What is the target?”
The attendant’s mental state also didn’t look good. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was stammering with nervousness: “It’s, it’s, it’s the royal private army that just arrived from an outer star system. Currently… currently they have lost contact with headquarters, and the possibility of total annihilation is very high…”
“Useless!”
Earl Lian let out a yell, kicked him over, and then stomped on him frantically as a vent: “Useless! Useless! You’re all damn useless!!!”
At first, the attendant lay on the ground trembling, head in his hands and not daring to resist. Seeing that Earl Lian showed no signs of stopping, his clouded eyes began to turn crazed—
“Go to hell, you dog noble!”
He roared, scrambled up from the ground, grabbed a flowerpot from the corner, and smashed it over Earl Lian’s head.
The man was stunned by the hit. It wasn’t until he felt the warm liquid on his forehead that he realized what had happened. Stimulated by the excitement of the brainworm, his already explosive emotions were like adding fuel to the fire.
When the adjutant and his troops surrounded the place, they saw such a scene: a grand Earl fighting and tearing clothes like a street thug.
Everyone was dumbfounded, their jaws dropping in amazement.
After Earl Lian, who was out of shape from years of no exercise, was pinned to the ground and beaten black and blue by the attendant, the adjutant “finally” remembered his duty and shouted for people to go up and separate them, and lock them up separately.
“What’s going on?”
Accompanied by the soldiers parting ways, Gu Xi, with a cold face and wearing black leather boots, walked over.
Xu Feng sighed: “These nobles’ armed intelligence capabilities are a hundred times more garbage than I imagined. Lieutenant General, we’ve already fought our way to their base, and this bastard is still lying in the harem, dreaming in a drunken stupor.”
“Gu Xi! You’ll die a horrible death! You &%￥#…”
Earl Lian was pinned down by the soldiers he had always looked down upon, cursing loudly on the spot.
Gu Xi gave him a cold glance.
The natural suppression of the mother worm over the brainworms made Earl Lian’s gaze go blank for a moment, and then his whole body trembled, letting out a tragic cry from his throat that didn’t even sound human.
The man knelt on the ground in agony, clutching his head and rolling around desperately, smashing his head against the ground as if he couldn’t feel the pain, and even the two soldiers behind him couldn’t hold him down.
Silence fell over the surroundings; all the soldiers were as quiet as cicadas in winter.
Xu Feng wanted to advise Gu Xi, since it wasn’t good to publicly use extrajudicial punishment on a high noble, but remembering the atrocious things Earl Lian had done over the years, and the little merman who was still ignorant of what happened last night, he felt a pang in his heart and simply kept his mouth shut.
A few minutes later, this agonizing pain that felt like it was tearing one’s nerves in half gradually ceased.
Gu Xi walked up to him step by step.
He looked down at the dog-like man on the ground. He hadn’t even raised a hand, just used the heel of his boot to lift the man’s head, asking in a cold tone: “Do you feel it?”
“Fe-feel what?”
Earl Lian lay on the ground in a pathetic state, tears and snot all over his face, asking incoherently.
“The pain of those departed souls and the Merman Star you destroyed,” Gu Xi said. “What you just experienced is only one ten-thousandth of what they endured.”
Hearing this, Earl Lian couldn’t stop trembling.
He was afraid, truly afraid. Even someone who had undergone professional interrogation training could not endure such inhuman pain, let alone a noble like Earl Lian who had been pampered since childhood and had never suffered at all.
His limbs crawled desperately on the ground, and like a dog, he grabbed Gu Xi’s trouser leg: “Please, don’t kill me, don’t kill me, I’m the Emperor of the Empire, I can give you anything!” He gasped for breath, his manner looking almost exactly like the former old King, “You want to be Emperor, don’t you? I’ll give it to you! You’re the Emperor now! I—”
Gu Xi directly stepped on his neck with a “crack,” and the person beneath his foot lost all signs of life.
Xu Feng was startled: “Lieutenant General!”
“Don’t worry, he’s not dead yet, just passed out,” Gu Xi snorted, though from now on Earl Lian would likely live his life in diapers, “Someone, drag him away!”
“Yes!”
Two soldiers immediately stepped forward, one on each side, and dragged Earl Lian away like a dead dog.
Xu Feng furrowed his brow, worriedly watching every flicker of expression on Gu Xi’s face, feeling that something was not quite right, though he couldn’t say exactly what it was.
Thus, he could only indirectly use Lin Xiaodong to remind Gu Xi to pay a little attention to appearances: “Lieutenant General, Xiaodong just contacted me, asking where we are. The business here is done; would you like to go back to the mother ship to see him first?”
“He contacted you?” Gu Xi’s originally indifferent eyes instantly sharpened, “Why didn’t he come to me?”
“Uh, ma-maybe he was worried about disturbing you?”
Xu Feng was so frightened by the man’s gaze that his voice even stammered.
Gu Xi stared at him for a few more seconds before turning away.
“I’ll be right back. Remember to do a head count.”
“…Understood.”
Watching Gu Xi’s retreating back, the expression on Xu Feng’s face gradually became solemn.
He was, after all, someone who had been on the battlefield, and his perception of danger and killing intent was very sharp. It was no exaggeration to say that in that moment just now, the hair on the back of Xu Feng’s neck stood up.
Gu Xi had truly felt murderous intent towards him.
Something’s wrong, he thought.
Something has definitely gone wrong with the Lieutenant General.
Starship Hall
The familiar sound of boots stepping on the floor came from behind. The little merman, who was standing by the porthole silently watching below, turned around and revealed a smile: “You’re back.”
Gu Xi stared at him fixedly, remaining silent.
“What’s wrong?” Lin Xiaodong was still wondering when the man in front of him suddenly reached out a hand and grabbed his neck.
The little merman was lifted off the ground with one hand, his small face turning bright red, making muffled sounds as he couldn’t speak.
The big tail behind him flapped constantly in mid-air. He used both hands to pull hard at Gu Xi’s wrist, but that large hand was like an iron clamp, remaining motionless.
Just when Lin Xiaodong felt he was about to suffocate, the grip on his neck suddenly loosened.
Gu Xi expressionlessly lifted his chin and kissed him fiercely, in a manner that was almost like biting.
The merman’s skin was delicate. Lin Xiaodong was firmly held in the man’s large arms, unable to move, and his large eyes uncontrollably filled with physiological tears.
“System—” he called out soulfully.
A few seconds later, the System appeared reluctantly.
Its voice carried a bit of perfunctory rigidity: “Do you need the electric shock service? …Alright, no need then, goodbye. Wish you a happy life, thank you.”
Lin Xiaodong: “…………” Damn it!
“Lieutenant General, what are you doing!?”
Xu Feng, who had followed out of concern, saw this scene as soon as he entered the hall. His heart nearly skipped a beat in shock.
At his shout, the gloom in Gu Xi’s eyes flickered for a moment. Xu Feng took the opportunity to rush over and rescue Lin Xiaodong from his grip. The little merman lay on the ground, clutching his neck and coughing several times in confusion, his voice turning hoarse.
When Lin Xiaodong took his hand away, Xu Feng saw a purple handprint had already been bruised onto his neck. The dark mark was startling on his fair skin.
“Gu…” Lin Xiaodong thought this person must be having an episode. He looked up, wanting to call Gu Xi’s name, but saw the man take half a step back, glance at him with an expression he had never seen on Gu Xi’s face before, and then stride away without looking back.
His back looked almost as if he were running away.
“What’s wrong with him?” Lin Xiaodong coughed twice more and asked hoarsely.
Xu Feng helped him up with a grim face: “I don’t know, but it’s probably because of the mother worm.”
He wanted to take Lin Xiaodong to the medical room to deal with it, but the little merman refused.
“I’m going to find him,” he said.
“No, the Lieutenant General is too dangerous right now!” Xu Feng refused flatly. “Didn’t you just experience it? The mother worm doesn’t have human emotions. If the Lieutenant General’s mind is truly controlled, he might kill you directly.”
“He won’t,” Lin Xiaodong smiled at him reassuringly. If Gu Xi really dared to do something, he’d have the System give the man an “Electro-King” package to clear his head. “He needs me more right now.”
But Xu Feng, imagining who knows what, looked at him hesitantly for a moment.
After a long while, he let out a deep sigh.
“Xiaodong,” the man straightened up and bowed solemnly to him, “Thank you.”
“The Lieutenant General… I’ll leave him to you.”