Chapter 345

The room fell into a deathly silence. Everyone stared at the hammer in Ai Yue's hand, just as they had when they first saw it.

"This is truly immense authority." Ai Yue weighed the hammer in his hand, sighed, and put it away. "What exactly does this guy, Clppr, mean?"

Clppr is the true name of the Aeon of Preservation. Looking across the world, perhaps only someone like Ai Yue could so casually utter this name.

"I cannot fathom the Amber Lord's intentions," Tala Van said, his voice lowering considerably, "But the Amber Lord's entrustment of such a treasure to you must stem from his complete trust in you, and he believes you will not abuse this power."

"Don't even mention misuse, I can't even use it anymore after this." Ai Yue shook his head helplessly. "If I really carried this hammer out on the street, I'm afraid the whole world would start to suspect my relationship with Clppr."

"Indeed, I was just thinking about borrowing it to play with," March 7th scratched his head, a slightly embarrassed expression on his face, "But now that I know the power contained in the little hammer, I can't bring myself to say anything, hehe."

Dan Heng glanced at March 7th and said, "Putting aside whether we can borrow it, are you sure you want to fight with a hammer?"

"Right," March 7th said, also lost in thought, "Fighting with a hammer is so ungirly, it goes against my aesthetics."

"Luckily, you don't need to worry about this anymore," Ai Yue smiled. "But if you want to play, how about I make you a similar one?"

"Don't spoil her too much, Ai Yue." Himeko sighed upon hearing this. "What if you spoil the child?"

"Himeko, what are you saying!" March 7th jumped up immediately. "I'm a well-mannered, kind, and intelligent little March, I won't be spoiled!"

"Out of eight words, only two are correct," Dan Heng complained from the side. "If you didn't always fall asleep while reading, I could trust you a little more."

"Dan Heng, don't sabotage me!"

Seeing the lively atmosphere among the group, Tala Van smiled, then silently looked at Ai Yue. Only after Ai Yue nodded slightly to him did he quietly leave the room.

After realizing the power of the little hammer, he understood that the outcome of the board meeting was still disrespectful to Ai Yue.

Objectively speaking, while such a treasure is indeed magical, its effects are almost entirely useless to Ai Yue. Given his strength, he has neither the power of the envoy nor the need to suppress the Fate Protection Path. After all, the only one in the entire Fate Protection Path who can truly rival Ai Yue is the Amber Lord.

However, the fact that the Amber Lord was willing to give away such a treasure was enough to show how much he valued Ai Yue. In addition, considering the significance of the treasure itself, Tala Van believed that they probably needed to treat Ai Yue in the same way they treated the Amber Lord.

So when the fleet from the building materials logistics department returned to Belobog, what they saw was an unprecedentedly extravagant spectacle.

"What is this?" March 7th stared wide-eyed at the enormous and exaggerated welcoming ceremony before him. "Is everyone in Belobog coming out to greet us?"

"Not just the people of Belobog," Tala Van smiled, then paused, looking at Ai Yue beside him, "Mr. Ai Yue, on behalf of the entire Interastral Peace Corporation, I extend to you our sincerest invitation."

"Please become the Honorary Chairman of Interastral Peace Corporation."

Chapter Eighteen: You didn't know we were keeping a thief in our house?!

The Stellar Train stayed in Belobog for three days before finally setting off again.

However, even as he left, March 7th still felt a sense of unreality looking back at this incredibly prosperous planet.

"Am I dreaming?" March 7th pressed her face against the window, gazing at Belobog in the ever-receding distance, a slightly infatuated expression on her face. "Dan Heng, Dan Heng, hit me... wait, really hit me?"

"It's necessary to wake up a fool." Dan Heng withdrew the pen from March 7th's forehead and said calmly, "Adjust your mindset. That service wasn't prepared for you, so it was destined to leave you."

"Of course I know, we're just freebies from Brother Yue." March 7th muttered, unable to resist shifting her gaze to the man sitting on the other side of the carriage. "Seriously, isn't Brother Yue even a little bit tempted? The company has really gone all out to serve us this time."

Although March 7th sometimes has a slow and somewhat dull mind, she's not really stupid. Besides, the company didn't intend to hide its intentions this time; everything was out in the open. Therefore, she naturally understood the earnest expectations behind this attentive and thoughtful service.

Although it was only a short three days, Interastral Peace Corporation revealed almost everything about itself to Ai Yue, from its branch offices in a distant star system to the advanced technologies the company was secretly developing. Everything was laid out in detail before Ai Yue.

Under such circumstances, with just a nod from Ai Yue, this vast commercial empire spanning countless galaxies would operate according to his will.

And this is the true meaning of "Honorary Chairman"—without the sole designated Chairman Amber Lord, interfering in company affairs, Ai Yue, having gained Amber Lord's approval and obtained that treasure, can thus influence the company's fate.

Even so, Ai Yue had no lingering affection for Belobog.

After all the activities were over, he was even the first to suggest setting off.

"After all, he is Mr. Ai Yue." Recalling a certain incident from before, Dan Heng couldn't help but show a hint of embarrassment. "Now that I think about it, he has always had a clear plan for his path, so how could he possibly be held back by the wealth in front of him?"

If March 7th could understand this, how could Dan Heng and Himeko not understand it? They even had a small discussion behind Ai Yue's back, the topic being "how they should face it if Ai Yue chooses to stay."

The details of this discussion are not for outsiders to know, but in the end everyone reached a consensus to respect Ai Yue's own choice. If he is truly moved by the company's sincerity and decides to stay in Belobog, then even though they hope that Ai Yue can embark on the journey with them, they will absolutely not stop him.

Fortunately, things didn't escalate to that point.

"You're one to talk," March 7th said, suddenly remembering something, and couldn't help but laugh at Dan Heng. "Weren't you the one who was most worried that Brother Yue would be blinded by short-term gains? Even Himeko said so..."

"Ahem." Even the seasoned Dan Heng couldn't help but blush slightly at being so bluntly exposed. "I also hope that Mr. Ai Yue can face his true feelings..."

"Oh? I didn't know you guys had discussed something like this?"

Just then, a voice suddenly rang in their ears. When they looked up, they found that Ai Yue, who had been sitting at the other end of the carriage, had suddenly appeared in front of them, sitting with his legs crossed and a smile on his face.

"Brother Yue," March 7th greeted awkwardly, "You can hear me from this far away?"

"It's mainly because you're always looking this way, it's hard not to notice." Ai Yue naturally couldn't say that he would notice them as soon as they mentioned his name, after all, he didn't want to be treated like Voldemort, so he changed his approach, "So, if there's anything you want to know, why don't you just ask him directly?"

"So, Brother Yue, you really don't care at all?" Seeing that Ai Yue wasn't angry, March 7th felt relieved and boldly spoke up, "The company clearly gave you such lavish treatment, but you seem to have no regrets at all."

"Because I know what their purpose is." Ai Yue pulled the small hammer from his pocket. "The real reason the company is treating me this way isn't because I'm strong, but because I have this."

"I understand, this hammer is like Amber Lord's attitude!" March 7th blurted out, "But no matter what, as long as this hammer is still here, you're still the company's Honorary Chairman, aren't you?"

"Of course, so I'm not refusing their request." Ai Yue raised an eyebrow. "It's just that there's no need for this little thing to affect what I really need to do."

A small matter?

March 7th and Dan Heng exchanged a glance, and a somewhat subtle expression appeared on their faces.

Ai Yue could not possibly be unaware of the scale of the Interastral Peace Corporation, yet he still referred to interfering in such an organization as a "minor matter." This could only mean that the goals pursued by the other party had far exceeded the scope that ordinary people could access, and had risen to an unimaginable height.

"In short, this matter isn't as complicated as you think. Strictly speaking, it's just a transaction," Ai Yue concluded. "The company wants to use me to consolidate internal factions, and I also hope to leverage the company's power to accomplish certain things, but excessively deep integration is completely unnecessary."

"So that's what you were thinking." March 7th scratched his head, then suddenly said, "But then, Brother Yue, what exactly is your goal?"

Faced with this question, Ai Yue simply gave a meaningful smile, "Want to know?"

Not only March 7th, but even Dan Heng couldn't help but nod. They were all very curious about the reason why this mysterious figure had chosen to travel with the Stellar Train.

"Let's pass the test first." Ai Yue seemed to sense something, then naturally stood up. "Don't avoid what you encounter next. As long as you can persevere, you'll have passed."

After saying this, he disappeared silently from their sight, just as he had come.

March 7th and Dan Heng looked at each other, unable to imagine what kind of challenges they might encounter inside the carriage.

Himeko walked into the observation car from the living area carrying a tray. "Oh, you're here? I just made some new coffee, would you like to try some?"

The two men immediately frowned, but at the same time they understood what Ai Yue meant.

"So this is what they call a test?"

Just as March 7th and Dan Heng were being tormented by Himeko's secret recipe, Ai Yue returned to his carriage.

Compared to the other carriages, his space was significantly larger and quite peculiar. The interior of the carriage was practically empty, resembling a corridor, with various doors lining the inner walls, but these were completely invisible from the outside, almost like decorations.

If an outsider were to walk in here, it would be hard to imagine the significance of these doors, since from a conventional point of view, there is absolutely no way there could be any usable space behind them.

But that's not the case at all. This is Ai Yue's secret to expanding space and cramming most of the Star of Light into the train: compressing the space and then using Teleportation Gate to partition it, thereby maximizing the usable space without affecting the overall aesthetics of the carriage. It's an extremely ingenious approach.

The cost was that this section of the train car was extremely expensive to build; even a minor bump or scratch would be painful for Ai Yue.

After opening the door marked with the words "Star God," Ai Yue quickly entered a clean and tidy laboratory. He placed the hammer on the workbench, and the surrounding devices started operating automatically, beginning to unravel the mysteries within.

This is the "Star God Laboratory" that Ai Yue used to specifically study the mysteries of the Star God and destiny, and the hammer that the Amber Lord gave him was the first experimental object here.

"Aiyi, pay attention..." Ai Yue subconsciously instructed his super Artificial Intelligence as usual, but then paused for a moment, followed by an awkward laugh, "I completely forgot to leave you on Earth."

When Ai Yi left Earth, she showed a strong desire to follow him. However, considering that Ai Yi is now the main consciousness of the Cocoon of Finality, Ai Yue naturally cannot allow her to easily abandon her responsibilities.

However, while Ai agreed to the request, she also put forward a slightly delicate condition: she would not allow Ai Yue to create any more Artificial Intelligence to replace her. In order to appease her, Ai Yue had no choice but to agree to this condition, which resulted in Ai Yue having to do everything himself in the huge laboratory.

To be honest, I'm still not used to it.

Ai Yue shook his head helplessly, and then began to manually adjust the equipment at hand.

After this encounter with the Amber Lord, he realized that although the imitation of the Power of Light could reproduce the effect of the corresponding destiny power to a certain extent, the fundamental difference between the two meant that the Power of Light could not replace the power of the other party's destiny.

The simplest of these is the small hammer in his hand. According to Tala Van, those who are not on the path of preserving destiny can only control a portion of its power and cannot fully unleash the power of a Commander-level being. Even Ai Yue cannot break this rule.

He had Tala Van try it out; in the hands of a true Guardian Walker, the hammer could manifest its true giant hammer form and be used directly as a weapon. But in Ai Yue's hands, it could only serve as a shield generator to defend against the opponent's attacks.

Ai Yue's primary goal right now is to figure out how to use the Power of Light to "fool" the hammer's recognition system, and he vaguely feels that this might be one of the reasons why the Amber Lord gave him the hammer.

I wonder what Amber Lord's motives are. It can't be some kind of "retribution" for his previous inability to convert the Power of Light, can it?

Such a thought flashed through Ai Yue's mind, but it was quickly overshadowed by the task at hand. After all the equipment was debugged, the hammer's various properties were soon displayed before Ai Yue.

Once he gets into research mode, Ai Yue completely loses track of time until someone knocks on the door and the distinctive doorbell rings, waking him from his research.

"What's wrong?" Ai Yue put down his research, came out, and opened the carriage door, only to find the train conductor standing outside. "Is there something you need, conductor?"

"Passenger Ai Yue, please follow me to the party carriage." The adorable Pom-Pom tried to maintain the conductor's image with a serious tone, "There's an important matter that requires the presence of all passengers!"

What's going on? Is there another problem with the train?

Seeing the other party's serious attitude, Ai Yue couldn't help but become wary. However, it wasn't until he followed Pom-Pom into the party carriage that he learned the truth from the others.

"Someone stole the food?" Upon hearing Himeko's description, Ai Yue immediately showed a helpless expression. "What's the big deal?"

"Of course it's a big deal, a very big deal!" Pom-Pom swept her stern gaze across everyone present. "Because this isn't just a simple case of stealing food, it's outright theft!"

"The prisoners didn't just steal food; they plundered a huge amount at once, far exceeding the amount needed to replenish their hunger!"

"Is that so?" Ai Yue blinked, momentarily at a loss for words. "Stockpiling grain? That's interesting."

"But is it really necessary to call everyone over?" March 7th whispered. "Doesn't the train conductor have absolute control over the train? Surely he can find the prisoner?"

"Of course the train conductor can find the culprit, that's why he needs to gather you all here," Pom-Pom said, hands on her hips, her ears pointing at the crowd instead of her fingers. "Because you all did it!"

No, I have other things to do too.

"I admit, I took some ingredients from the kitchen to research new coffee flavors," Himeko confessed first, "But really, it was just a little bit?"

"Me too," March 7th chimed in, "But I was just hungry, so I ate some cookies and didn't take anything else!"

"I was trying to make food from Earth, but I failed, so I used a few extra ingredients," Dan Heng said frankly. "But I've already reported it, and I even wrote a list and posted it in the kitchen."

Ai Yue was listening with great interest when he noticed that everyone suddenly turned their heads and looked at him in unison.

"Wait, I really didn't take anything!" Ai Yue immediately showed a helpless expression. "As you can see, I have absolutely no need to eat, so why would I go to the kitchen to steal anything?"

"However, the last suspect I tracked down did indeed disappear right at your carriage door!" Pom-Pom took two steps closer, her expression serious. "Passenger Ai Yue, you wouldn't have secretly kept any unauthorized pets on board, would you?"

"How could that be!" Ai Yue vehemently denied it, but a figure flashed through his mind, and his expression immediately became subtle. "It shouldn't be... right?"

Is Chapter Nineteen really that insidious?

"So, what does this mean?"

Inside Ai Yue's private carriage, two figures were cautiously moving forward.

March 7th hid behind Dan Heng, carrying a flashlight, looking furtive like a novice burglar attempting a break-in. "Why are we the ones who have to search for the person in Brother Yue's carriage when there might be someone hiding there?"

Compared to March 7th, Dan Heng's demeanor was much more normal. However, he was holding a long gun, his eyes filled with scrutiny and seriousness as he constantly scanned every corner of the carriage. Although he certainly didn't look like a petty thief anymore, he was more like a special agent searching for evidence.

The combination of these two contrasting individuals created a somewhat subtle effect in the scene.

"Stop complaining. Didn't Mr. Ai Yue already explain it very clearly?" Dan Heng glanced around and said, "If someone really has been hiding under his nose for this long, it means he can't find them. But if it's someone else besides him, maybe they have a chance."

"I understand the logic, but is this right?" March 7th's tone was subtle, clearly not yet understanding the situation. "If the other side can't even find Brother Yue, then why can we? It can't be because Brother Yue is less capable than us at finding people, can it?"

"I'm not entirely sure of the specific reasons, but it's probably not related to strength," Dan Heng said, glancing at March 7th with a hint of helplessness in his voice. "Besides, you really don't need to do this. Given Mr. Ai Yue's personality, if there's any danger involved, he would absolutely not let us do it."

"That makes sense." After realizing this, March 7th straightened her back, but just as she straightened her chest and raised her head, she involuntarily bent back down. "But, this place feels very dangerous. Is it really okay?"

March 7th couldn't explain where this feeling came from, but ever since she entered the carriage, she had felt a chill down her spine, which was why she had been so timid.

"After all, it's Mr. Ai Yue's carriage. What he considers commonplace might be a challenge for us, so it's not wrong to be cautious." Dan Heng said, glancing at the flashlight in March 7th's hand. "But didn't Mr. Ai Yue give you self-defense equipment? You've been holding it in your hand the whole time, why don't you use it?"

The flashlight that March 7th held in her hand was no ordinary flashlight; it was a prop that Ai Yue had handcrafted on the spot before the trip and given to her to protect herself.

"Oh right!" March 7th finally realized, then turned on the flashlight. "But what could this thing possibly do... eh?"

When the flashlight was turned on, there was no beam of light as expected to illuminate the road ahead. To be precise, there was light, but it enveloped March 7th and Dan Heng in an inexplicable path, forming a hemispherical protective shield around them, which looked very strange.

This time, not only March 7th, but even Dan Heng fell silent. After a moment, he spoke as if talking to himself, "So, Mr. Ai Yue, why did you make it look like a flashlight?"

Judging from the effect of this prop, it's easy to see that it could be made into a pendant or something similar. In any case, it would look more suitable than a flashlight.

"Who knows? Maybe it has other functions too?" March 7th was clearly confused by Ai Yue's thought process, but still casually replied, "But anyway, at least being enveloped in this light makes me feel warm and comfortable."

"Alright, let's begin the search." Dan Heng nodded and then said, "I just checked, and Mr. Ai Yue said that we don't need to check the white doors, and we can't check the black doors, so the remaining area is very small."

March 7th then looked around and immediately looked surprised. "Then, wouldn't that leave only two doors?"

Looking around, the walls were covered with white and black doors, with only one blue door and one red door in between.

"I suspect Mr. Ai Yue probably already anticipated this," Dan Heng said calmly. "In any case, which door should we look at first?"

"Blue, I like blue," March 7th made her choice after only a slight hesitation. Then, as if remembering something, she looked curious and said, "By the way Dan Heng, you said there are so many doors of the same color without labels. Won't Brother Yue get them mixed up?"