After Rebirth, Married to a Deadly Enemy - Chapter 37

38th desolate star.

Shi Zhen leaped up, an energy blade in his hand cleaving through the forehead of a massive three-meter-tall exotic beast. Immediately, he spun his body, twisted his wrist, and forcefully dug out a fiery red energy crystal from the beast’s head.

The entire movement was as fast as lightning; the exotic beast couldn’t even roar before its towering body collapsed, raising a cloud of dust.

Shi Zhen stepped out slowly from behind the exotic beast, still holding the energy crystal he had just extracted.

“A level-five energy crystal, and it’s fire-based. This can be exchanged for three hundred thousand star coins when we take it back. Boss, we’re going to strike it rich.” During mission execution, all harvested resources should be turned over to the military, but if the harvested resources are urgently needed by the military or the alliance, the military will give appropriate rewards.

Shi Zhen tossed the energy crystal over with a casual gesture, “Contribute it to the reserve fund for the team.”

“Thank you, Captain.” The members of the Flame Team cheered in unison. Liang Chen, having just “rebuked” his teammates, turned to Shi Zhen with a flattering look, “Captain, I was right, wasn’t I?”

Shi Zhen was speechless, raised his hand, and threw the energy crystal, “Give it to the team as a reserve fund.”

“Thanks, Captain.” The Flame Team members shouted in gratitude. Liang Chen quickly and skillfully stored the energy crystal in his personal space for later exchange for rewards.

The Flame Team had a reserve fund account, where everyone would symbolically contribute a portion of their mission rewards for emergencies. Typically, the amount contributed to the reserve fund wouldn’t exceed ten percent of the bonus, but with Shi Zhen’s current wealth, they had the idea of “robbing” the fund.

“Captain, the area we were instructed to investigate has been explored. Do we continue deeper?” Their assigned mission was to investigate the periphery of the 38th desolate star, and it was now completed.

Shi Zhen hesitated for a moment, looking at the dense jungle ahead, “Go a little further and see if we can find the members of the Blade Team.”

The Blade Team was the previous team that took on the exploration task, consisting of ten members. However, on the tenth day of entering the 38th desolate star, they suddenly lost contact as a group. So, besides continuing to explore the outskirts of the 38th desolate star, they were also tasked with locating and rescuing the Blade Team.

“Understood.”

“I’ll lead the way, and you all stay alert.” With that said, Shi Zhen took the lead and walked into the deep jungle.

The group walked into the jungle in an orderly manner, and the deeper they went, the quieter it became. Shi Zhen felt something was wrong, becoming even more cautious. After about an hour of walking, they finally found traces of human activity in a grassy area.

“These footprints are from military boots,” Lin Qing stated with certainty.

“Are the members of the Blade Team still alive?” The group became excited. Although the Blade Team wasn’t part of the Storm Legion, they were fellow soldiers in the alliance, and rescuing them would be a good deed.

“They’ve been out of contact for half a month; their food must be running out. We need to find them quickly.”

“Let’s split into groups and search, two people in each group?” Liang Chen suggested.

“No.” Shi Zhen shook his head, “We’ve been walking for so long, and we haven’t encountered a single exotic beast. Don’t you find that strange?”

Reminded, everyone immediately realized the oddity.

“We don’t know much about it, only that it can sense spiritual power, and its sound can influence our spiritual power,” said a member of the Blade Team.

Liàng Chén and his team had just experienced this phenomenon.

“Have you been hiding inside for several days?”

“Yes, there are no powerful spirit beasts within the territory of that giant bird. As long as we don’t use spiritual power, we won’t be detected. However, we were severely injured in the previous battles. Even if we leave the giant bird’s territory, we can’t kill the peripheral spirit beasts. So, we decided to hide inside and recover.”

Liàng Chén’s gaze fell on the unconscious captain of the Blade Team. “Captain Yán, how long has he been unconscious?”

“Three days,” replied Captain Yán, “By the way, do you have any spiritual soothing agents? Quickly inject yourselves with one. The aftermath of that giant bird’s cry has a lasting effect. It may seem unaffected now, but after a few days, your spiritual power will suddenly become restless. The stronger the spiritual power, the greater the impact. Our captain fell victim to it.”

Captain Yán, who was unconscious, had a round device on his head similar to a tight-fitting curse, used to block spiritual power. Such blocking devices were only issued to warriors with high levels of spiritual power.

When warriors on missions had their spiritual power become restless or uncontrollable, it could affect those around them. Lower-level individuals could resist it with their own spiritual power, but for higher-level individuals like S-rank warriors, if their spiritual power went out of control without a way to stop it, they would become deadly weapons. The last time Captain Shī Zhèn went to the 101 Desolate Star to find energy essence, he relied on such a spiritual power-blocking device to return to the capital star for treatment.

Hearing this, members of the Flame Team took out spiritual soothing agents from the medical box and injected themselves. Although the potions they brought were only B-rank, they still had some effect.

After the injection, the clarity of their spiritual consciousness improved, and the vague throbbing pain disappeared. Sensing this, they were alarmed again. If the other party hadn’t reminded them, they might have experienced an episode on their way back, with disastrous consequences.

The team waited on the warship, watching the sky gradually darken. The once calm Flame Team gradually became anxious.

The giant bird seemed incredibly powerful and specialized in spiritual attacks. Would the captain be in danger?

Since returning to the warship, Liàng Chén had been continuously calling for Shī Zhèn but couldn’t get through.

“I’ll wait for ten more minutes. If the captain doesn’t come back, I’ll go out and find him,” said Guān Lóngfēi impatiently.

“I’ll go too,” immediately responded Lín Qīng.

“Hey!” At that moment, Shī Zhèn’s voice came through Liàng Chén’s communicator.

“Captain.”

“Boss!”

“Are you okay?”

Upon hearing Shī Zhèn’s voice, the team initially cheered, then bombarded him with questions.

“I’ll be there soon,” Shī Zhèn didn’t answer their questions but assured them he would return quickly.

About five minutes later, the battle-damaged Shī Zhèn appeared outside the warship. Liàng Chén quickly opened the warship’s hatch to let Shī Zhèn in.

“Captain, quickly, get the medical kit,” Liàng Chén exclaimed, seeing Shī Zhèn in that battered and torn battle armor, deeply concerned.

If the battle armor was in such a state, he must be injured.

“Don’t worry, just some superficial wounds,” Shī Zhèn reassured calmly.

Though the team didn’t believe him, when Shī Zhèn took off his battle armor and began applying medicine, they realized it was indeed just superficial wounds.

Shī Zhèn turned to look in the direction of the Blade Team, noticing only three people. His brow furrowed, and he asked, “Are there others inside?”

The Blade Team’s warrior’s eyes turned red, silently shaking his head, “We were chasing a spirit beast inside, engaged in a battle, with all our spiritual power released. When that giant bird sensed us, it screeched, and most of us suffered damage to our spiritual consciousness. In the territory of the giant bird, if you can’t restrain your spiritual power, you can’t escape its pursuit. The deputy captain and others, to avoid burdening us, took the initiative to lead away the giant bird.”

As he spoke, the young warrior’s voice choked.

Shī Zhèn didn’t press for more details. He turned to Lín Qīng and said, “End the mission, return to the capital star.”

“Yes,” Lín Qīng immediately headed to the cockpit, starting the warship, and departing from the 38th Desolate Star.

During the bandaging process, Liàng Chén recounted the information about the giant bird he had learned from the Blade Team to Shī Zhèn and then asked, “Captain, how did you avoid that giant bird?”

“Its cry doesn’t affect me much. I led it deep into the jungle and then restrained my spiritual power. It couldn’t find me, so it left,” Shī Zhèn explained. “However, its sound seems to interfere with communication signals.”

“No wonder I couldn’t contact you earlier,” Liàng Chén realized, “How did the battle armor end up in such a state?”

Calling it damaged was being polite; that set of fifth-level battle armor could be considered scrapped.

“I wanted to test the attack power of that giant bird. After a few rounds, the battle armor couldn’t withstand the bird’s claws. Conservatively estimating, facing off against that giant bird would require a seventh-level battle armor,” Shī Zhèn spoke as if just getting a seventh-level battle armor would allow him to easily deal with the giant bird.

“…” No wonder you returned so late.

“By the way, how is Captain Yán?” Shī Zhèn looked at the spiritual power-blocking device on Yán’s head as he came in.

Liàng Chén cautiously glanced at the two surviving members of the Blade Team and whispered, “Captain Yán has been unconscious for three days. It will take two more days to return to the capital star. Even then, it might not be treatable unless we can find an apothecary immediately to prepare a psychic medicine for him.”

Shī Zhèn pondered for a moment, subconsciously touching the space button at his waist. “What is Yán’s psychic power level?”

“A+,” Liàng Chén regretted, “If it were B-level, the psychic medicine we brought might still be useful.”

A+? When Bai Xiangxing gave him the medicine, they only mentioned A-level would be effective. Would A+ work? But at this point, there was no choice.

Shī Zhèn, a decisive person, immediately tapped his waist, taking out the box of medicine Bai Xiangxing gave him.

Seeing the suddenly appearing medicine box in Shī Zhèn’s hand, Liàng Chén curiously asked, “What is this?”

“The latest psychic soothing agent developed by Xinshi, A-level,” Shī Zhèn said.

Liàng Chén’s mouth gaped open in astonishment, looking at the medicine box in disbelief.

“A… A-level?”

“Go and try it on Captain Yán,” Shī Zhèn didn’t mention that it was still in the experimental stage. In this situation, using it now might either save Captain Yán’s psychic consciousness if lucky, or things wouldn’t get worse if unlucky.

It was a last resort, as Bai Xiangxing had described.

Liàng Chén exclaimed, took the medicine, and injected Captain Yán. About half an hour later, Yán, who had been unconscious for three days, woke up.