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Staring at the battleship wrapped in a blue shield on the screen, Song Chi immediately pressed the red button beside him, and then activated themunication bracelet in his hand.
In the far-flung 0155 star region away from the duchy''s Floating Land, themunication bracelet naturally had nowork connection, but Song Chi wasn''t looking to go online for any queries; rather, he wanted to review a segment of Torch Warship video footage that was already stored in themunication bracelet.
A momentter, he confirmed his suspicion.
"That''s right, it''s the Blood Wolf, the gship of the ''Blood Wolf,'' the vice-captain of the Blood de Star Thieves who left theirir before," he murmured.
No sooner had hee to this conclusion than Song Chao, Song Lin, and Song You, three others, rushed into the monitoring room from outside.
"What''s going on..."
Before their question could be fully articted, their gazes had already converged on the projected screen in the room.
"The Blood Wolf!"
Song Chao immediately recognized the warship in the field of view on the screen, and then he muttered to himself,
"Gone for over a month, and now you finally return, and the damage to the battleship seems quite severe. Could it be that you encountered some tough resistance during your plundering?"@@novelbin@@
While the four in the monitoring room each had their guesses, the Blood Wolf with a long, narrow tear in its side armor slowly moved inside the protective shield of itsir.
Song Chi''s eyes flickered thoughtfully.
In the previous month, he had carefully recorded the environmental conditions of the star domains within a hundred thousand kilometers around the Blood de Star Thieves''ir. Now all that was left was the inside of theirir, and with the return of the Blood Wolf, he was contemting whether it was time to sneak into theirir for a proper investigation.
He had a feeling that there was more to the Blood Wolf''s recent expedition than met the eye.
Of course, it was just a faint suspicion, not a strong intuition.
He had also been hesitating about when to investigate the Blood de Star Thieves''ir, but now that the opportunity had presented itself, he might as well follow it and check things out.
Keeping this n to himself, he didn''t say much more. On the other hand, Song Chao thoughtfully called the others to step back, while Song Lin stayed behind to take over Song Chi''s shift.
In the days that followed, Song Chi didn''t rush to deploy the Phantom Butterfly Rank drone he had at his disposal. Instead, he further confirmed the patrol schedules of the Blood de Star Thieves recorded in their base, selecting the most suitable target for his action.
...
The Blood de Star Thieves''ir, an oversized room on the outermostyer, was home to four of the group''s lowest-ranking star thieves.
On this day, Xueyi stood atop the Ghost Energy Cultivation tform within his gship, fully engaged in cultivating the Spectral Energy Guidance Technique.
At 42 years old, he was just a Zero Rank Torch Ship Captain with a mere level 7 Guidance Technique.
The reason he had fallen so far behind was that he was an unofficial citizen of Torchlight Humanity, not privileged to the typical awakening of the Seed of Torch at the age of 30.
Being the descendant of a First Rank star thief born within the Blood de Star Thieves'' territory, the only way for him to awaken his Seed of Torch was through the group''s organized awakening held every twenty years. This method did not care about one''s age or whether one missed the optimal time for awakening. Xueyi had received this opportunity just three years ago and had sessfully awakened.
Right at this critical moment of cultivation, a bout of cursing came from outside the shuttle.
"Xueyi, it''s your turn for patrol. Dammit, I have toe and remind you every single time. If you''re blind, I wouldn''t mind helping you get rid of those eye-catching features," someone yelled amidst the cursing.
In the midst of swearing, Xueyi piloted his shuttle, the Xueyi, into the air and began to patrol around the star thieves'' base.
Although the base was built deep within the 0155 star region, the higher-ups of the star thieves never let down their guard. They still strictly required their members to remain alert, ensuring that daily vignce and patrol duties were never neglected.
After drifting around within the protective light shield for two hours, the Xueyi finally carefully exited the barrier, beginning a slow patrol outside the base of the star thieves.
Their task was simple: to record the position changes of the surrounding spatial rifts and spatial anchor points.
While it was incredibly unlikely for the position of these spatial rifts to change—a process that, even if it did ur, would slowly unfold over centuries—apart from spatial rifts, there was also the matter of the Void Gangwind.
Though this phenomenon blew out from the spatial rifts and its might weakened as it distanced itself, eventually disappearing entirely, that was typical of ordinary Void Gangwind. Should a strongrge-scale Void Gangwind emerge, it could pose a significant threat to the star thieves'' base. Monitoring for the formation and appearance of such Gangwinds was their daily task as Zero Rank star thieves. Readtest stories on m_v-l''e|-NovelBin
The progress of the Xueyi was slow; after all, beyond the defense light shield, danger was omnipresent. For Zero Rank Torch Ship Captains like them, idents were frequent.
Suddenly, a small Void Gangwind burst forth from a nearby spatial rift, and the energy fluctuations it brought caused the Xueyi to wobble significantly. It was only with great effort on Xueyi''s part in the control room that he managed to pull away and regain distance.
In the control room, Xueyi wiped the cold sweat from his brow, silently noting another close call with death.
However, he waspletely oblivious to the fact that as the Void Gangwind reached the Xueyi, a minute phantom swiftly streaked behind his ship, and then silently clung to the underside of the Xueyi at a dark spot.
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