Extra Update: Xiao's Diary (II)

Chapter 15: Xiao's Diary

Today was an unlucky day. I don't even want to remember what date it was!

Gu Xiechen? The Holy Unicorn Mercenary Group?

They all deserve to die! They absolutely deserve to go to hell!

What does the Holy Unicorn Mercenary Group's losses have to do with me?? They're just a bunch of greedy parasites clinging to the bodies of Roam people and Earthlings. But what about the components I ordered? What about the parts I ordered? All my savings from the past few years have been paid into their account, but they were actually attacked! The components that were supposed to be delivered to me... all lost!

Damn it!

Gu Xiechen? The Holy Unicorn Mercenary Group?

I'll remember you!

*

Two bright blue lights flickered in Xiao's dark eyes as he angrily closed his diary document. Grabbing a discarded mechanical arm from the workbench, Xiao unconsciously twisted the high-strength alloy mechanical arm, which could withstand a ten-ton load at its highest strength. Terrifying power erupted from his seemingly slender arms, and the mechanical arm made an unpleasant creaking sound. In his rage, Xiao twisted the thick mechanical arm into a mangled mess.

The blue light in his eyes grew brighter. Xiao suddenly took a deep breath, his bulging muscles slowly contracted, and the light in his eyes gradually faded into nothingness.

Xiao waved his arm lightly and let out a mocking cold laugh, looking up at the sky. After staring blankly for a while, Xiao helplessly looked at a large piece of machinery in his room that was nearing completion. Without a word, he picked up his tools and dismantled it into its most basic components. The Holy Unicorn Mercenary Group had been attacked and suffered heavy losses, along with a Level 1 warship of the Holsom Family. The components and parts Xiao had ordered clearly wouldn't arrive on time, and he had no new channels to order new parts. After all, he was just an insignificant mixed-blood descendant of the Holsom Family, and there were very few Roam people willing to deal with him. He also didn't want to deal with more Roam people.

If this treasure, which had consumed all his efforts, couldn't be completed smoothly, then let it remain in his mind.

"Gu Xiechen? The Holy Unicorn Mercenary Group?" Xiao muttered the two names repeatedly.

Dropping the multi-functional tool mechanical arm in his hand, Xiao dejectedly walked out of his room. As the automatic door opened before him, Xiao felt a hint of fear in his heart. How long had it been since he left his room? Three months? Six months? Or... more than nine months? This spacious workshop was like Xiao's snail shell, protecting him but also confining him. As Xiao walked out of the automatic door, he instinctively lowered his head.

Twelve arrogant Holsom Family warriors marched past Xiao in a neat formation. As their captain passed Xiao, he merely nodded slightly in Xiao's direction out of servant's instinct. The twelve family warriors were all wearing the latest model of energy armor. The exquisite and luxurious metal armor was covered by a three-centimeter-thick layer of faint blue aura. This latest energy armor was said to be able to withstand the main cannon fire of a Level 3 warship of Earth's humans, and each piece was extremely expensive. Even the main combat legions of the Roam people had not yet been equipped with it.

But in the Holsom Family, even the lowest-ranking family warriors were equipped with this energy armor called 'Radiant Dragon Wing VII'.

"Glorious and great Holsom Family!" Xiao's mouth twitched. The Holsom Family truly lived up to its reputation as the second-ranked elector family among the Roam people.

The ground, paved with materials fused from Zakla Energy Crystals and special single-crystal metal materials, emitted a mysterious blue glow. The circular hall in front of Xiao's workshop was two hundred meters in diameter. The Gothic vaulted ceiling, learned from Earthlings, was over four hundred meters high. The ceiling of the vault was made of transparent crystal material. Sunlight shone down through the ceiling, which was carved into a concentrating lens shape, casting brilliant beams of light and making the hall exceptionally magnificent.

There were twelve radiating corridors around the circular hall, each leading to important buildings of the Holsom Family. Xiao's workshop and living quarters were located by one of these corridors. His workshop was originally a lounge for family servants. Converting a lounge for family servants into a workshop was fitting for Xiao's mixed-blood status.

At the entrance of each corridor stood eight family warriors completely covered in energy armor. Their nearly three-meter height made these family warriors particularly imposing. They had their left hands on their hips and held specially made poleaxes in their right hands. The five-meter-long poleaxes were also covered in a thick layer of faint glow, and strong electrical currents occasionally shot out from the top of the axe-spears, making sharp crackling sounds. These family warriors seemed to have no concept of saving energy, as they kept their special energy weapons at full power at all times, pursuing only the dazzling spectacle.

Even their energy armor—in fact, Xiao really wanted to tell them that they didn't need to activate the energy shields of their energy armor all the time. The Zakla Crystals they wasted every hour were enough to allow a light vehicle to travel thousands of kilometers. But this was the Holsom Family's style, this was the Holsom Family's flair!

Twenty-four disc-shaped flying vehicles, two meters in diameter, flew out of a corridor to Xiao's left with a faint humming sound. Twenty-four handsome youths in flowing white robes stood on the flying discs. They were tall, handsome, and strong like gods. They conversed excitedly in low voices, a faint blue aura covering their bodies, surging up and down with their emotions. The overflowing spiritual power fluctuations made the hall feel like a rising tide, and Xiao's body involuntarily retreated a few steps, his back pressed tightly against the wall.

A Roam youth noticed Xiao's presence, but his gaze swept over Xiao as if he were invisible. No one paid attention to Xiao, especially these pure-blooded direct descendants of the Holsom Family. They had no reason to acknowledge Xiao's existence. He was just a lowly mixed-blood, born solely because Nanket Holsom wanted to try his luck and see if any outstanding genetic mutations might appear among his descendants. Since Xiao's genes had not mutated and his talent was so mediocre, he was almost worthless.

The twenty-four proud Holsom direct descendants flew out of the hall on their disc-shaped flying vehicles. A large contingent of family warriors waited in neat formation outside the hall. Each youth was escorted by a number of family warriors, which was also a necessary ceremony of the Holsom Family.

Xiao slowly walked out of the hall. Not a single family warrior looked at him directly.

Outside the hall was a plaza, about one kilometer long and wide. Two purple-black warships, over three hundred meters long, and hundreds of various types of war vehicles were neatly parked on the plaza. The wind howled, carrying sand and gravel. The energy shields of the warships and war vehicles, operating at full power, emitted dazzling light. Grains of sand were continuously turned into wisps of smoke by the energy field, and the continuous popping sounds of sand grains exploding could be heard. The vast plaza was like thousands of popcorn machines operating at full capacity.

Thick clouds covered the sky, and faint thunder rumbled from the horizon. A huge shadow could be vaguely seen slowly passing through the thick clouds. The active electrons in the air suddenly became nearly a hundred times denser as the shadow passed over Xiao's head. Xiao's long hair stood on end. He merely rubbed his fingers, and a small electric arc shot out from his fingertips for more than ten centimeters. The powerful electromagnetic field caused the sand and gravel in the wind to become heavily charged. As the wind and sand rubbed against each other, an electromagnetic storm suddenly erupted on the plaza ahead. Dazzling purple lightning enveloped everything, and several-meter-long blue arcs of electricity splashed onto the energy shields of the warships and war vehicles, with crackling sounds that made one's scalp tingle.

This was a hellish world.

The huge black shadow passing overhead was the Martian defense platform named 'Thor's Roar' by the Roam people. This was an artificial monster with terrifying firepower and strong defense. The metal platform, over ten kilometers wide and long, could only drift slowly in low Earth orbit. The massive magnetic levitation engines on the platform continuously sprayed large amounts of electromagnetic pollution into Mars' atmosphere below, leaving nothing alive in its wake.

If it weren't for the Roam people, who possessed extremely strong mental fields, an ordinary Earthling would not be able to survive in such an environment for more than three minutes.

At the edge of the plaza was a patch of dry, small trees. The withered yellow trunks, about the thickness of a child's wrist, stood weakly and crookedly on the ground. The wind, carrying large amounts of sand and gravel, swept towards this pathetic patch of small trees. After a series of crackling sounds, several extremely scorched trunks simultaneously ignited.

A few Holsom Family warriors ran towards the patch of trees upon hearing the noise. One of them sternly pointed at the burning tree trunks with his hand, and a stream of white cold air sprayed from his fingertips. The temperature in the localized small area plummeted to around minus one hundred degrees Celsius. The burning tree trunks were frozen by the cold air, and the flames naturally dissipated.

This was Mars, which the Roam people had painstakingly managed for nearly three hundred years. It was a terrible planet that barely allowed the Roam people to live.

Many times, Xiao couldn't understand why the Roam people would build defense structures like Thor's Roar. Even if the Roam people paid Earthlings to come to such a planet, they wouldn't be willing. Xiao had seen many photos of Earth in the diary left by his mother. The beautiful natural scenery was like paradise. Would Earthlings cross the stars to attack a hellish Mars? Unless all Earthlings had gone mad!

"Ignorant," Xiao muttered softly, giving the current leaders of the Roam people a fitting evaluation. He walked towards a dilapidated 'Sand Scorpion I' off-road vehicle in the corner of the plaza. This war vehicle was older than the seventeen-year-old Xiao. It was said to have participated in nineteen localized conflicts with Earthlings. Xiao found it among a pile of war junk brought back to Mars and spent more than a year restoring its mobility.

Next to this Sand Scorpion I was a brand-new Sand Wolf VI assault vehicle with its own energy shield. This was the vehicle equipped by the Holsom Family for Xiao. After all, as the second-ranked elector family of the Roam people, Xiao still needed some dignity when going out. But Xiao just favored this old off-road vehicle he salvaged from the junkyard and refused to use the vehicle provided by the family. The Holsom Family could do nothing about it, and he became increasingly neglected within the family.

Climbing into the cockpit, which seemed too spacious for Xiao, he closed the slightly leaky car door and skillfully started the vehicle, driving towards the outside of the valley where the Holsom Family resided.

Mars' harsh environment forced the Roam people to live in natural or artificial valleys. Valleys thousands of meters high could protect them from over eighty percent of strong windstorms. A dense network of valleys connected to each other formed the cities and city clusters of the Roam people on Mars. Deep valleys and hidden underground passages connected the entire Mars, providing access everywhere. After hundreds of years of recuperation, over four billion Roam people lived in this unique semi-underground environment.

The Sand Scorpion I drove into a small, narrow passage on the west side of the Holsom Valley, owned by the Holsom Family. After more than an hour of driving, Xiao left the transportation network opened up by the Roam people and entered a natural valley in the wilderness. After Xiao's modifications, although the Sand Scorpion I looked dilapidated and old on the outside, its performance was twenty percent higher than the latest Sand Scorpion VII. The car nimbly crossed the fiery red sandstone rocks in the valley and finally arrived outside a cave at the end of the valley.

Here, surrounded by cliffs over three hundred meters high, there was a cave entrance less than three meters high below the eastern cliff. A small 'Sand Scorpion II' off-road vehicle was parked on a small patch of sand outside the cave. The usually indifferent Xiao's expression rarely thawed when he saw this Sand Scorpion II, and a gentle smile appeared on his face.

This Sand Scorpion II was also made by Xiao, coming from the same pile of war junk as his own Sand Scorpion I. Xiao had poured more effort into this Sand Scorpion II than his own Sand Scorpion I because this Sand Scorpion II belonged to Xiao's only friend—a cute girl from the Spirit Race, a servant race of the Roam people—Lily.

The Spirit Race was a humanoid race similar in physique to Earthlings, with pale green skin, pupils, and hair. Every Spirit Race person was slender, exquisite, beautiful, and cute. They possessed a peculiar talent. Although the spiritual power of every Spirit Race person was not strong, it was delicate and gentle. Believing that all things have spirits, they could communicate with all living beings in heaven and earth.

The Roam people's ability to establish themselves on Mars, in addition to their powerful technological capabilities, was not insignificant. It was the Spirit Race people who used their racial abilities to catalyze several low-level algae native to Earth to initially transform Mars. The new oxygen-rich atmosphere that could support life on Mars was created by the Spirit Race.

This cave was accidentally discovered by Xiao when he was young. The cave contained a strange energy that all instruments could not detect but definitely existed. This energy was full of peculiar vitality and could make plants grow and evolve better. Xiao could not sense this wonderful energy at all, but Lily sensed its existence, and from then on, it became their little secret.

A green shadow flashed, and a slender, petite figure cautiously poked her head out of the cave entrance. When she saw that it was Xiao who had arrived by car, a brilliant smile lit up her small face. Before Xiao could even see Lily's movements clearly, the petite figure, leaving a trail of afterimages, pounced into his arms.

"Xiao, why did it take you so long to visit me this time?" The petite and beautiful Lily excitedly hugged Xiao's neck. She quickly asked about everything that had happened to Xiao in the past few months in her crisp, sweet voice. Her beautiful tone was like a clear spring thawing in spring, nourishing Xiao's soul, and his heart slowly softened in the sound of this beauty.

Lily's body was petite and soft, as if she had no bones. She hung on Xiao, and Xiao didn't feel any weight at all. Xiao affectionately reached out and stroked Lily's green hair. He said with a wry smile, "I've been very busy lately, very busy. You know the things I'm building."

Lily's eyes lit up. She forcefully grabbed Xiao's ear and pulled it. "Then you have time to see me, does that mean you succeeded? You succeeded? Really?"

Lily knew what Xiao was building. It was something that could change Xiao's destiny. If Xiao could successfully build them, his status in the Holsom Family would be greatly improved—Xiao could even directly enter the highest academy of the Roam people because of these items. What Xiao was building was a new generation of engines that could improve the utilization rate of Zakla Energy Crystals. Both Earthlings and Roam people had countless researchers studying this difficult problem.

More advanced engines, higher energy efficiency, and greater unit output power all mean bigger warships, faster speeds, and more powerful high-energy weapons. This means traveling further in the universe, being able to survey more celestial bodies, and discovering more and newer resources. It means stronger overall capabilities and the hope of completely suppressing or even eliminating the enemy!

A Roam half-breed, not yet eighteen years old, dares to talk about creating a brand-new engine? If word of this got out, it would make countless researchers from both races laugh themselves to death. Yet, for the past few years, Xiao has been researching exactly this. This is also a little secret between Xiao and Lily—Xiao is indeed the gene-mutant of Nanket Holsom's dreams, possessing extremely strong innate abilities, but his talents don't lie in the spiritual cultivation that the Roam people pride themselves on.

Xiao possesses a terrifying talent for physical strength. It was the seven-year-old Xiao who pushed aside a falling rock weighing several tons, saving the equally young Lily, which is how their bond began.

However, even more terrifying than Xiao's talent for physical strength is his talent for machinery. It's an instinct, an ineffable, almost divinely gifted instinct! Lily has witnessed the miracles Xiao created countless times.

With a wry smile, Xiao shook his head helplessly. "No, I failed. Or rather, I failed temporarily."

Lily had no doubt about Xiao's success, so her beautiful green eyes looked at him in surprise.

"Why didn't it work?" Lily was almost in tears, her green eyes filled with them as she looked at Xiao with great grievance. She knew the significance of this engine to Xiao; as long as Xiao presented this engine to the academicians at the Roam Supreme Academy of Sciences, Xiao's fate could change dramatically.

"Ugh!" Xiao's expression was terrible. He mumbled the names "Gu Xiechen" and "Holy Unicorn Mercenary Group" again, shaking his head in anger. "This, you can't blame me, Lily, you can't blame me. This is someone else's fault. It was a very unfortunate coincidence, and besides the bastards from the Holy Unicorn Mercenary Group, I'm also unlucky."

After a few wry laughs, Xiao shook his head. "It looks like I have no choice but to undergo the Christo Fusion Ceremony."

"No!" Lily cried out in terror. "Absolutely not, you'll die!"

Yes, people would die. Lily's family held a certain status among the Spirit Race, and she had heard countless terrifying stories about the 'Christo Fusion Ceremony' since childhood. In most of those stories, no one survived; everyone who underwent the ritual either died or transformed into monstrous demons. According to the legends of the Spirit Race, these failed fusion demons were man-eating monsters that used Spirit Race members as appetizers and Roam people as their main course.

Would Xiao, who gave Lily infinite warmth and a sense of security, also become such a monster?

Tears streamed down Lily's face as she sobbed, asking, "Can't you think of another way?"

"Another way?" Xiao shook his head. Unless he could complete that engine, but he was missing some extremely important custom-made parts.

The rigidly stratified Roam people would never provide him with these, nor did he have the money or the power to demand them. As a lowly half-breed of Roam and Earth, no one would, or rather, no one was willing to believe him—including Nanket Holsom. If Xiao even dared to tell people that he had invented a new engine that could improve the energy utilization of Zakla Energy Crystals, his only fate would be to be mocked as an idiot by countless arrogant Roam people.

Let alone those stubborn, rigid, and conservative academicians of the Roam Supreme Academy of Sciences. If Xiao dared to approach them with his design blueprints, they would absolutely order the guards to execute him on the spot—even if his nominal father was the patriarch of the Holsom Family, it wouldn't save his fate.

Who would believe a lowly half-breed?

In the entire universe, the only one who had faith in Xiao was Lily, who was crying in his arms.

After a moment of silence, Xiao chuckled lightly. "Come, Lily, don't cry. Let's go see your treasure, well, my treasure too!"

The spacious cave was filled with a faint green light, a magical glow seeping from deep within the rock walls. A nursery spanning a hundred meters in length and width had been cultivated on the sandy ground. Within the nursery were nearly a thousand tender, emerald-green saplings, each about two meters tall. They were full of vitality, and every leaf was brimming with a rich, almost dripping greenness.

This was the little secret between Xiao and Lily.

The cave possessed a magical power that promoted the growth and evolution of plants, and it could stimulate Lily, greatly enhancing both her physical and mental strength.

The air inside the cave was very fresh; the cave and the outside world were like two completely different realms.

Xiao sat comfortably in the nursery with Lily in his arms. He took a deep breath, and the fresh, cool air swirled in his lungs, the rich vitality slowly integrating into his body.

"This is truly wonderful!"

Xiao gazed at the grove in a daze.

If it weren't for the trouble caused by those scoundrels 'Gu Xiechen' and the 'Holy Unicorn Mercenary Group,' this world would truly be wonderful.

If he could successfully build that engine, combined with Lily and this beautiful grove! This world would truly be wonderful!

"Gu Xiechen!"

"Holy Unicorn Mercenary Group!"

Xiao repeated these names in his heart again and again, deeply hating these two individuals.

It was because of them that Xiao had to participate in the life-or-death Christo Fusion Ceremony.

Feeling Lily's smooth skin, Xiao uttered the most vicious curses he knew towards Gu Xiechen and the Holy Unicorn Mercenary Group.

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An extra bonus chapter... a chapter of over 6,000 words...

Alas, comrades, a new week is upon us... throw your recommendations and clicks my way...

Heh heh...

It will soon be a new month...

Give me your passion, and I will give you an explosion...

Gagagagagagagagagagagaga... (To be continued)