“What reward do you want for your contributions?” Jenny asked.

“I want permission to use the Void Dragon’s bones,” Han Xiao said.

Jenny nodded. “Haier manages the warehouse. I’ll say hello to him and give you a quota for Void Dragon materials.”

Haier managed logistics, and any requisition of rare materials required his consent. Han Xiao’s request was normal, so Haier naturally wouldn’t refuse.

Han Xiao was delighted. Void Dragon materials were priceless and impossible to buy; they could be considered a faction specialty. Sure enough, being close to the water gets you the moon first. Whether he resold them or kept them to build machinery, Void Dragon materials would be very useful.

After Han Xiao left, Jenny leaned back in her chair, her eyes flashing behind her lenses. She murmured, “Black Star Han Xiao… not the kind of guy who trembles under Ames’s authority. He carries many secrets, claims to be a Seer, and his subordinates are all immortal. If he had more of that kind of power… Sigh, such a person is a capable assistant, but I wonder if it’s a good thing.”

After a pause, Jenny’s brows relaxed. “Never mind, it doesn’t matter who he is. As long as Ames is still here, she can suppress any unexpected factors.”

…

Walking out of the building, Han Xiao was in a good mood. He had gained a lot this time, and he planned to take a good bath and then go to the warehouse to collect the materials and count his spoils.

But suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him, and a possibility surfaced in his mind.

“DarkStar’s target was those two dead Silver Spirits. If I were them, the Silver Spirits’ trail would be broken, and the next step would be to find other people involved. So, DarkStar is very likely to go after the slave traders who escorted the Silver Spirits.”

Han Xiao was shocked to realize this, and his footsteps stopped. He immediately changed direction and headed for the dock, quickly disguising himself along the way, taking off his recognizable mecha and weapons, and putting on a simulation mask.

He secretly rejoiced that he had realized this in time. Only a little over an hour had passed since the attack, and Ash and the others were very likely to hide for a while to avoid the limelight. This was an excellent opportunity for him to seize the initiative and figure out DarkStar’s intentions.

“Let me see what DarkStar really wants,” Han Xiao said with a wicked smile.

…

At the same time, in a street on the outskirts of Longtan, Ash and his men were hiding in the shadows between buildings, and a flyer passed overhead without seeing them.

Ash and the others had escaped the reconnaissance range and were basically safe.

The special forces team looked grim after the botched operation. Ash suppressed his annoyance and ordered in a deep voice, “Time is of the essence. We’ll go find that slave trader, complete the mission as soon as possible, and not stay in Longtan for long.”

A mechanic skilled in electronics said, “I’ve found the information. The slave trader is called Paqi, and he’s staying at the Longtan dock.”

“Good, he hasn’t left Longtan yet, which is very beneficial to us.” Ash perked up and led his group back to the dock.

He had a feeling that Paqi must know the whereabouts of the Cipher Pearl.

…

The number of ships docked at the pier was much less than usual, and the array was sparse. There were two reasons for this. First, there had been too much turmoil in recent days. The last pier battle, where Ames had taken action, had shocked many thugs. They had hurriedly left, not daring to stay for fear of being held accountable later.

Second, the Longtan floating island’s route was about to pass through the border of the Goron Star Cluster’s two civilizations. This was a sensitive area where friction often occurred, full of energy detection buoys and patrol fleets with extremely high alert levels. If they left Longtan in this area, the risk factor would increase greatly. The patrol fleets would not hesitate to use shells to deal with a group of wanted criminals, so many people chose to leave before that.

Paqi also had this idea and was preparing to leave Longtan.

Although he had been double-crossed by Hollaid, which had cost him a large sum of money, there were still other slaves on board, which he sold to other individual customers, making up for the cost of the trip, but with no profit. The unhappiness in his heart was imaginable.

So, an hour ago, when Paqi heard that Hollaid’s slave market had been bombed, he smiled like a two-hundred-pound fat man, not hiding his schadenfreude.

“That profiteer deserves to lose everything.” Paqi’s mood was rarely cheerful. He propped his legs on the control panel in the captain’s room, his eyes rolling, and muttered, “The Silver Spirits were rescued again. What a pity, if I could have hijacked them…”

Then he shook his head. This possibility only existed in his imagination. He fully realized that the current Silver Spirits were a hot potato, coveted not only by mercenaries but also by other unknown forces. The water was very deep, and a group of slave traders like him had no ability to intervene again. He had no hobby of committing suicide. Just Han Xiao, whom he had encountered last time, had almost beaten him into snake soup. Now, thinking back, Paqi still had lingering fears about that black, thick, and hard mecha warrior.

“Start the engine, let’s go.”

Several drivers manually operated the ship. Flames spewed from the bottom of the ship, and it was about to leave the fixed orbit of the dock. At this moment, the ship’s system received a notice from the dock.

“Attention, captains. A large meteor shower is approaching. The countdown to impact is three minutes, at which time the protective shield will be fully deployed, and no ships will be allowed to enter or exit. All captains are advised to take note.”

The screen showed a radar observation picture. A large, dense mass of colored blocks was approaching at high speed. They were all meteorites. In this situation, it was too dangerous for the ship to act alone. Paqi quickly ordered people to turn off the engine and stay, relying on Longtan’s protective capabilities to get through this meteor shower before making other plans.

Buzz—

The golden shield was activated. Longtan floating island could originally see the cosmic environment through the artificial atmosphere, but now, the sky was completely covered in gold. The entire Longtan floating island became a rugby-shaped golden sphere. The plasma energy core operated at maximum power, and high-energy light arcs were constantly ejected from the surface of the golden shield, like coronal mass ejections from a star, like writhing pythons.

The meteor shower came head-on, overwhelming and of all sizes. The largest was equivalent to one-third of the floating island. Longtan charged straight in, and countless meteorites hit the golden shield, bursting out circles of golden light ripples. The energy waves generated by the collisions spread far and wide in the universe, leaving traces.

On the floating island, the ground clearly had a sense of vibration. Han Xiao happened to arrive at the dock at this time, changed his attire, took off his mecha, and put on a hooded black robe bought from a street shop, looking very mysterious. The simulation mask changed his face, and no one could recognize him.

Arriving at Paqi’s spaceship port, Han Xiao turned on the communicator to search for nearby channels, found Paqi’s number, and sent a communication request… To put it in a more down-to-earth way, he didn’t add Paqi as a friend, so he could only search for people nearby.

After a while, the communication was allowed, and Paqi’s face appeared on the screen, puzzled. “What do you want from me?”

“I have something I want to ask you about the Silver Spirits.”

Paqi’s heart tightened. He had originally decided not to get involved in the Silver Spirits incident, but he didn’t expect to still be implicated. Calming himself, he asked, “Who are you?”

“DarkStar.” Han Xiao lowered his voice, taking the name of DarkStar, he had deeper considerations.

Paqi’s expression suddenly became strange. His first reaction was disbelief. This sudden stranger was not a mixed-race Godoran. He felt just like that Silver Spirit who was thrown out of the spaceship, only using DarkStar as an excuse. After all, DarkStar was quite famous in the Shattered Star Ring, and many people liked to use it to scare others.

“Do you have any proof?” Paqi asked suspiciously.

Han Xiao pretended to be tough and said coldly, “Now I’m the one asking you. The two Silver Spirits you threw out of the spaceship have something we want. As for my identity, I don’t need to prove it to you. Just try refusing me, and you will naturally know whether the person who eliminates you is DarkStar… Of course, if you cooperate, I can pay some money for this information.”

Because the information was limited to the four points he had previously guessed, Han Xiao would say so, but it just so happened to hit the nail on the head. The transporter, in order to save his life, revealed the fact that he was a DarkStar envoy, and only a few people, including Paqi, knew about this.

Paqi originally didn’t believe it, but when he heard Han Xiao’s words at this time, he immediately thought of that pearl. Connecting the words of both sides, it turned out that most of them matched, and he was stunned!

—Damn it, could that Silver Spirit really be an envoy of DarkStar! Did they really come to my door?!

Doubts were immediately dispelled for the most part, and Paqi was both apprehensive and excited.

DarkStar was the great pioneer in his mind who saved Godora. He had won the jackpot this time! But he had killed the DarkStar envoy. Would there be a problem?

He suppressed his excitement, hesitated, and was still not sure whether Han Xiao’s identity was true. Although he believed most of it, there was still a trace of uncertainty.