"This matter... don't tell anyone!" An Changyan said gravely. Black armor covered her from head to toe, hiding her face.
There was no need to guess. She was surely grinding her teeth in anger.
"Yes..." Chen Beixun lowered his head, somewhat afraid to look An Changyan in the eye.
Chen Beixun didn't ask much about the Machine Race Spaceship. He just wanted to get out of this godforsaken place as soon as possible.
"Your Highness, if there's nothing else, I'll take my leave." Chen Beixun turned to go as soon as he finished speaking.
"Wait." An Changyan stepped in front of him. "There's another Machine Race Spaceship here. Come with me. I'll make sure you're rewarded."
Chen Beixun chuckled.
He felt that An Changyan hadn't suffered enough yet. Any normal person would have kept their distance, but this one... Why did she look so eager to rush in?
Is she using me as a shield?
Or does she want to use the traps inside the Machine Race Spaceship to kill me?
Two thoughts popped into Chen Beixun's mind.
An Changyan opened her helmet, revealing her face. Her bright eyes were filled with anticipation.
Can a Kekumeng's mood really change this much?! Chen Beixun swallowed nervously.
"If you don't say anything, I'll take that as a yes." An Changyan tilted her head, looking utterly charming.
To Chen Beixun, the sight was like a crocodile shedding tears.
"Your Highness... The World Castle is about to open, and as a member of the Lotte Family..." Before Chen Beixun could finish, An Changyan rushed forward and grabbed him, trying to drag him toward the Machine Race Spaceship.
"Come on!" An Changyan pulled at his hand with all her might, but Chen Beixun remained rooted to the spot.
"You're only at the second cosmic rank, and you haven't even reached your peak yet." Chen Beixun said, lightly pinching his fingers together and tapping An Changyan on the head.
"Ah." An Changyan covered her head and groaned, then exclaimed in surprise, "You know I'm from the Kekumeng Race?"
Chen Beixun smiled. "The Kekumeng Race isn't some mysterious race. They're not much different from the other races among humanity."
"Hey, is your father an Undying?" Chen Beixun's smile widened as he waited for An Changyan's answer.
"He... he is. So what?" An Changyan was taken aback, then asked in confusion.
"Nothing. I was just curious." Chen Beixun's smile faded.
An Changyan changed the subject. "So, are you willing to explore the Machine Race Spaceship with me or not?"
"Sure, sure." Chen Beixun rubbed his hands together, his expression calm.
"But..." Chen Beixun's gaze darkened. "Could you ask your family to recommend me for a position in the core ranks of the Virtual Company or the Giant Axe Martial Arena?"
"Well..." An Changyan pondered for a moment. "It won't be easy. You can't just walk into the core ranks of the Five Giants."
"You could get in through the Warrior Tournament or an internal selection."
"But the Warrior Tournament is too brutal. I wouldn't recommend it." An Changyan shrugged. "But I can get you a spot in an internal selection! You'll have to help me, though."
Chen Beixun thought for a moment before replying, "Thank you."
The ship's defensive systems were on par with those of a standard F-class human spaceship, so it took quite some time to break through them.
"Qishan, how's it going?" Chen Beixun stood on a hillside, gazing at a giant flying lizard-like creature in the distance.
"Not bad," Qishan said. "The ship's systems are far too advanced. Just the calculations for its underlying logic add up to an astronomical number."
"Even a standard intelligent system would need tens of thousands of epochs to finish calculating them."
Only after Qishan disabled the ship's cloaking function did the two of them see its full form. The Machine Race Spaceship was silver all over, about two hundred meters tall, and shaped like a pyramid.
"It was probably used by an ordinary World Lord of the Machine Race. I'd estimate it's worth... 900 Hunyuan Units. Looks like this World Lord wasn't very wealthy," Qishan said.
Chen Beixun studied the enormous vessel before him and sighed. "Still, it belonged to a World Lord."
Nine hundred Hunyuan Units was already far more than most World Lords were worth, except for those who'd had extraordinary luck, were exceptionally powerful, or had been cultivated by one of the Five Giants.
A triangular entrance opened neatly in the side of the Machine Race Spaceship facing Chen Beixun and An Changyan.
"Let's go." Chen Beixun looked at An Changyan, thinking, So you couldn't open this ship after all.
The two of them flew inside as streaks of light.
The moment Chen Beixun stepped onto the silver-white metal floor, he heard An Changyan's envious voice. "Your Intelligent Life... is very advanced."
At that, Chen Beixun thought, Qishan is the Intelligent Life of a Marquis.
Seeing that Chen Beixun didn't respond, An Changyan asked, "Is your master an Undying?"
With a top-tier plant life like the Demon Island Vine and such impressive insight, it was hard not to suspect that he'd studied under some powerful Undying.
"Uh..." Chen Beixun just gave an awkward grin.
When An Changyan saw that he wasn't answering, she didn't press him. Everyone had their own secrets, after all.
"Let's go!" An Changyan headed forward first, fascinated by all the strange things around her.
Chen Beixun followed beside her, calmly studying the spaceship's interior.
"The Machine Race's craftsmanship really is impressive!" he marveled sincerely.
The two strolled through the ship, chatting about the situation in the World Lord World and their adventures. The atmosphere was relaxed.
An Changyan: "You're from the Tianchen Empire?"
Chen Beixun: "Yes."
An Changyan: "That small middle-tier Universe Country has plenty of organizations that traffic in slaves."
From her tone, Chen Beixun could tell that she was deeply compassionate, much like he'd once been. Reality had worn down his quick temper, while time had dulled his kind impulse to stand up for others.
Heh... In his previous life, he hadn't even dared to kill a fish. Now, he killed people as casually as he'd trample weeds.
The first time Chen Beixun had killed someone, he'd been overcome with fear and wandered along a path for a long time. Afterward, he'd nearly taken his own life out of guilt.
"Um..." An Changyan seemed to have been holding something in for a long time. At last, she let it out. "Would you be interested in becoming my bodyguard?"
"I'll pay one Hunyuan Unit every ten thousand years!"
Chen Beixun turned to study the "Your Highness" beside him.
From the perspective of both profit and other considerations, recruiting Chen Beixun was a good idea, given his supposed connection to a powerful Undying.
In the Demon Island Domain, the price was calculated by the vine: one vine cost 100 Hunyuan Units.
A hundred vines would be worth 10,000 Hunyuan Units! And the Demon Island Vine could both attack and defend, while also devouring other plant life. At auctions, this kind of plant life was sold for astronomical prices.
"Have you decided yet?" An Changyan nudged Chen Beixun with her elbow.
Chen Beixun looked up, his thoughts swirling. A stable, peaceful life of cultivation.
If I just became this girl's bodyguard...
Wait... Master... He remembered his fallen master. Qishan had told him about his master's deeds.
Whether his master's enemies would come after him was a major concern. If they discovered him while he was serving as An Changyan's bodyguard, there was no telling whether an Undying from her family would help his master's enemies capture him.
This is troublesome...
At the thought, Chen Beixun's expression stiffened slightly. Then he said, "Let me think about it."
"What?!" An Changyan looked incredulous. "That's one Hunyuan Unit! Even my grandfather, King Fengwu, only gives me a few dozen Hunyuan Units from time to time."
Even an ordinary army-lord Undying would struggle to earn one Hunyuan Unit over several thousand years! And that was through ordinary means. Anyone who ventured into secret realms or fought on the Outer-Domain Battlefield would naturally accumulate wealth faster.
Meanwhile, the various giants were keeping an eye on the situation here.