novelraw Chapter 134 : Off-Season
Chapter 134 : Off-Season
Participants exited in an orderly manner.
The other four schools, having been played by Zhu Jing Fu and tricked into fighting energy bodies in the underground mirage for nothing, were extracted from the mirage by the Border Army.
After the remaining energy bodies were taken over by the Border Army, the others didn't even give a glance to the black gold mechas, heading straight for the flying vehicle.
Zhou Chen was still trying to console them from behind: "Hey, don't leave so quickly, we still have feelings for each other, right?"
Puluo, who was the first to exit, came out of the flying vehicle upon hearing Zhou Chen's voice. Hearing Zhou Chen, he nodded instinctively, seemingly wanting to find something to say to build rapport, but what came out was: "Yeah, Na Luo River's absorption device was so smooth, it installed with just one try. Little Sui was even worried I couldn't install it."
Hearing Puluo's words, Chen Sui deeply covered her forehead, looking somewhat helplessly at Xie Chunshi.
Zhou Chen nodded, almost praising Na Luo River along with Puluo's words.
It was Xie You who turned around, smiling grimly, "Is that so? When it's Zhu Jing Fu's turn to defend, I'd also like to see how well your device is made."
Xie Chunshi gestured a zipping motion toward Zhou Chen and Puluo.
"Say less, our hatred level is already quite high."
After speaking, Chen Sui looked at Puluo, sincerely praising: "Puluo, your monster-attracting level is getting better and better."
Puluo, believing it was heartfelt praise, lowered his head and smiled honestly.
Zhou Chen tried to pat Noya's shoulder. The golden-haired shota jumped out of his mecha, glaring at him fiercely, though without much destructive power, looking more like a puppy pretending to be fierce.
"Too much!"
"You're still slandering me, Chi Buyu told me everything, you little guy, although you praised me as awesome, you're pinning all the blame on me. Next round, you just wait!"
For Zhou Chen, Noya's height was still a bit short, so he had to look up to make threats. Zhou Chen looked at Chen Sui a bit awkwardly. The analyst lowered her eyes, looking harmless and obedient, giving him a helpless look, silently mourning the soon-to-be-broken classmate friendship in the Lightning Group.
"You can't say that, in the end, we took you to the mirage to get points, right!"
Noya got angry at this: "Ahhh, you're going to drive me crazy!"
Hearing their Commander's frustrated voice, several Saint Laurent members looked back from the front. Seeing Noya and Zhou Chen's actions, they all smiled a bit.
The league livestream ended with this scene. The contestants who had finished the competition were brought back by the flying vehicle, heading first to the medical ward for post-match examination.
The fierce battle in the mirage at the end had left the Zhu Jing Fu members with some injuries, as they had taken quite a few cannon hits due to the four schools' heavy resentment.
But overall, the venting cannon fire wasn't too strong, just a bit of struggle after realizing they had been played.
Chen Sui came out with her body check report, pondering for a moment. When she returned to the central hall of the Competition Committee, she saw people gathered together and was momentarily stunned.
In the center of the crowd, Xie Chunshi seemed to sense something and looked back, his eyes somewhat gentler, "How was the check-up?"
Chen Sui had been concentrated on in the mirage, and the fire attribute energy had a strong effect on her spirit body.
The analyst shook her head, the grass leaves woven on her head swaying: "No problem, I..."
Chen Sui fell silent for a moment, looking at the crowd around, and didn't finish her sentence.
"Hey, why is everyone here?"
When Zhou Chen came over with his report, he saw a group of people sitting around the central screen and curiously peered over.
"You dare to come over?" Chi Buyu rolled up his sleeve, pretending to want to hit him: "Come on, let's go to the combat platform for a match."
"No, no, no, I'll apologize by taking you on a roller coaster ride, okay? Spare me," Zhou Chen had been electrocuted in the mirage until his limbs were numb, so where would he have the energy for a friendly match on the combat platform now? He hurriedly declined.
"Roller coaster, I'm afraid there's no time."
In the crowd, from Xie Chunshi's direction, Ink Hills' Commander lifted his sensor glasses, his expression somewhat serious: "On the way here, I saw the Border Army Zone Eleven director leave. Director Zhao said the Border Army confidential files are about to be opened."
Hearing about the Army director, He Lanqi looked over: "Director, I—"
"Madam He Lan just left, I saw her expression wasn't good, she probably just had an argument with the Gu family head."
There were many conflicts between military zones. The old aristocracy led by the Gu family was more inclined to trade "commoner" sacrifices for "aristocratic group" control over energy fields, but this concept itself contradicted Star Alliance regulations and thus received much criticism.
The He Lan family head, He Lanying, also He Lanqi's mother, was strictly speaking, an ally of the Song family, inclined to protect lower positions from higher ones, using the excellent Star Alliance elites from the main star to guard the border areas, preventing energy field invasions on the population clusters in the middle and distant star rings.
Chen Sui didn't know these things; her focus was drawn to the confidential files mentioned by Zhang Yingjie.
"Confidential files, what content might they have?"
Chen Sui asked softly, looking toward the Zhu Jing Fu Commander, nudging Xie Chunshi with her elbow.
This small action was made instinctively when the crowd gathered, and Xie Chunshi noticed it from the corner of his eye, his lips curling slightly.
He was about to say something when Xie You, who had been watching his micro-expressions, saw him smile faintly and snorted internally: "Grandfather is here too."
Black Mamba lowered his eyes, but his mention of 'grandfather' made Xie Chunshi's expression pause, his tone seemingly choked, his words changing midway: "Is that so? That's a bit unfortunate, I haven't seen the old man for a long time. I wonder how grandfather's health is now?"
"He won't die."
Xie You said coldly.
From Saint Laurent's direction, Xie Yi, who was reaching for small snacks on the table, immediately grabbed a decorative sphere beside the snacks and tossed it at Xie You's position.
"How can you speak like that!"
Xie Yi showed an angry expression toward him, but when turning toward Xie Chunshi, she smiled sweetly: "Little Brother Chun, next time when you go back, you'll see. Grandfather misses you so much, he even bought gifts for your birthday last year, but they were all taken by my brother!"
Toward the end, she glared at Xie You again.
Xie Chunshi curved his eyes: "Is that so? After the league ends, I'll go back and see."
"You'd better still remember how to come back, don't just remember the way back to the Song family."
Xie You's sentence made Song Yuan, on the other side, lift her eyelids to look at him, "The path to Wisteria Star isn't as famous as the Xie family's path. It's normal to remember the way back to the Song family."
The Song family's origins could be traced back to the first chairman of the Star Alliance, Song Yunlai. Logically, they should have belonged to Yuguang Star, but later, Jin Shi single-handedly opened up Wisteria Star, preserving many ancient star ruins. After Jin Shi disappeared into the star sea, Chairman Song established his residence on Wisteria Star to commemorate her, and the Song family thrived there ever since.
During Song Baining's tenure, to appease Border Army soldiers injured on the battlefield, she opened a retirement area for the Border Army on Wisteria Star, arranging residences and jobs for a large number of injured retired Border Army personnel. Therefore, Wisteria Star was also accepted as the Song family's main base.
Xie You already couldn't stand Song Yuan, and now being pricked by her words, his expression became even more unpleasant. But he made no other move, just looking somewhat stubbornly at Xie Chunshi.
Faced with his younger brother and sister's gazes, Xie Chunshi's face also showed some discomfort. He seemed to sigh: "Alright, I know, I'll personally go apologize to grandfather when the time comes."
The major families of the main star had completed their succession transfers long ago. The current leader of the He Lan family was the mother of He Lanqi and He Lanxiu, Madam He Lanying.
The default leader of the Song family was also Song Baining.
The leader of the Xie family should have been passed to Xie Liuyun, but unfortunately, due to Xie Liuyun's imprisonment in the prison tower, the former family head Xie Qiuhan, who was Xie Chunshi's grandfather, resumed as family head, managing all affairs as well as the Border Army troops represented by the Xie family.
"Alright, now is not the time to talk about these things," Zhang Yingjie was also somewhat helpless about the topic shifting, and immediately brought the situation back, "The meeting will be held in the information tower. Currently, it's unclear what type of confidential files they are, but they should be related to the recent energy field situation. I asked Director Mo for the recent energy field monitoring data from the management department. The content is too vast for one person to complete. Would everyone like to analyze it together?"
He brought out his light brain cloud end, passing it to others.
"Wow, you even got your hands on this," Noya exclaimed in surprise, quickly signaling to him: "Do you even need to ask? Of course we want to see it. What excitement would Saint Laurent miss?"
Although Noya was somewhat joking, like the other Commanders, his face carried a hint of seriousness.
"We can start by looking at the top ten energy fields."
Xie Chunshi patted Chen Sui's arm, secretly reminding her, while speaking to Zhang Yingjie.
Chen Sui's eyes flickered, focusing her attention on the light screen.
Zhang Yingjie pulled up the content of the top ten energy fields, arranged according to the management department's detection order.
"Queyu Valley, normal fluctuation."
"Static River Backflow, normal fluctuation."
"Sand Holy Song, normal fluctuation."
"Clear Sky Spell, normal fluctuation."
......
"Flower Cloud Dream—normal fluctuation."
Zhang Yingjie pulled up Flower Cloud Dream's fluctuation pattern and, after uttering the word 'normal,' suddenly frowned, "Flower Cloud Dream's energy fluctuation has even decreased."
"Flower Cloud Dream's fluctuation level seems to have been decreasing continuously, almost like a regular SSS-level energy field now," Ink Hills' analyst Jiang Zhongyu's clear voice sounded, immediately attracting Chen Sui's attention.
Noticing Chen Sui looking at him, Jiang Zhongyu curved his eyes and smiled at her.
"Is there any record of Flower Cloud Dream's previous fluctuation level?"
Chen Sui knew very little about the top ten energy fields because most of this information was in Border Army records, and no relevant information could be found on the StarNet.
Zhang Yingjie pulled up some images, finding information about Flower Cloud Dream interspersed within: "This is Flower Cloud Dream's fluctuation level when it was rated as one of the top ten energy fields. If we really trace it back, it was about more than ten years ago?"
The discourse on the top ten energy field fluctuations had existed for a hundred years, but it was truly established after the Sand Holy Song by Song Baining.
The Border Army zone seemed to have a special evaluation standard, but the top ten energy fields they selected were indeed the most troublesome ones for the Star Alliance currently.
"This fluctuation doesn't seem too strong either."
Noya was an outsider to analysts, but he could see at a glance that the Flower Cloud Dream of that time didn't seem to have anything particularly noteworthy.
"Flower Cloud Dream is the most gentle of the top ten energy fields," Zhang Yingjie explained, "SSS-level energy fields rarely have no riots, and Flower Cloud Dream is one of them. Since its descent, there has been no riot, but later the Star Alliance discovered that Flower Cloud Dream has a derived small energy field within it. The Border Army named this small energy field [Fallen Forest]. Fallen Forest refreshes randomly within Flower Cloud Dream, and the energy level fluctuation within far exceeds Flower Cloud Dream's average level, with extremely violent storms and a constant tendency to riot."
"However—"
At this point, Zhang Yingjie suddenly paused, "Everyone should know this information. Flower Cloud Dream's special feature is also that, among the other top ten energy fields, when the Border Army was cleaning them, they captured main energy body images, that is, the source of image data for high-level main energy body groups. But since Flower Cloud Dream's descent until now, no one has seen its main energy body."
Chen Sui lowered her eyes, seemingly feeling nothing about this news.
Gu Qinxue inconspicuously wrapped her arm around from behind Chen Sui, pressing down on the slightly twitching vines in her hair, her cool voice softly saying in Chen Sui's ear: "Little Sui, don't be nervous."
Chen Sui nodded: "Mm, I know."
Her voice was calm and peaceful, but Gu Qinxue looked at the top of her head, asking uncertainly: "Are you sure?"
Chen Sui: "."
"I can't control it."
Her eyes drifted a bit, seeming somewhat helpless.
Hearing about Flower Cloud Dream, Chen Sui found it hard to control her wildly beating heart.
She had known very early that her spirit body was unusual. In Chen Sui's speculation, it should be similar to the parasitic relationship between the Meteor Tree and the Fierce Fire Star Stone.
This spirit body, or energy body, had taken her as a host.
But Chen Sui's original mental domain energy, as well as her ability to induce spatial attribute energy, indicated that she had originally awakened her own energy space attribute energy crystal.
From her gradually recovering memories, Chen Sui could piece together that probably at the beginning of her transmigration, her space energy crystal was taken by the energy body, and at the same time, this energy crystal parasitized her.
Currently, Chen Sui wasn't sure if this energy crystal parasitized actively or out of helplessness, but what could be certain was—
Flower Cloud Dream's main energy body, Wood-Born Flower, was now in her mental domain.
And it had already fused with her mental domain, establishing resonance, unable to separate.
Chen Sui took a deep breath. From the moment she decided to fuse with the Wood-Born Flower energy body, there was no chance for regret. This was her only way to survive. Chen Sui's intuition told her that suppressing and fusing with Wood-Born Flower was the only way she could live; otherwise—
The Meteor Tree, which had completely become a puppet of the Fierce Fire Star Stone in Sultry Red Forest, flashed through her mind.
Chen Sui closed her eyes momentarily.
She would never become a puppet controlled by an energy body.
The fierceness in her eyes was too intense, causing Zhang Yingjie, who was being stared at, to pause his words and instinctively look toward Zhu Jing Fu.
"Um, does Zhu Jing Fu have a grudge against the God-Abandoned Domain?"
Zhang Yingjie asked curiously.
He had just pulled up the God-Abandoned Domain's fluctuation pattern, and Zhu Jing Fu's analyst's air pressure suddenly dropped, with killing intent spreading, making the surrounding military school students shiver a bit, immediately looking toward Zhu Jing Fu.
Noya rubbed his arm, pushing the hot tea on the table toward Chen Sui's line of defense: "Sister Chen Sui, have a sip of tea to calm down. I know your Commander was bullied by God-Abandoned Domain energy bodies. Don't be angry, after the league, you can choose the God-Abandoned Domain to beat them up."
Zhu Jing Fu had already taken two double points, if not sitting firmly in first place, at least the top three was guaranteed, so there would be a quota for selecting one of the top ten energy fields.
With Noya saying this, Xie Chunshi blinked, lowering his eyes to look at the analyst.
Although he knew Chen Sui's complex feelings toward the God-Abandoned Domain weren't entirely because of him, having it suddenly mentioned, Xie Chunshi's face grew somewhat hot.
"Sorry."
Being reminded by Noya, Chen Sui blinked her eyes, pushing down those thoughts in her heart, slowly retracting her aura, looking apologetically at Zhang Yingjie and the people around.
"Shall I continue?"
Zhang Yingjie looked at them, and seeing no objection, he continued: "The God-Abandoned Domain energy field's situation is quite complex. Currently, there's no definite explanation about this energy field's attribute. It's also the only field with uncertain energy attributes. According to the detection, the God-Abandoned Domain is currently in a fire attribute state. According to the latest energy field detection, the fire attribute is transitioning toward wind attribute."
"Can we see the God-Abandoned Domain's fire attribute fluctuation graph?" Na Luo River's analyst He Lanqi sat elegantly on the long sofa, her posture particularly graceful, smiling at Zhang Yingjie.
Zhang Yingjie nodded, marking the fire attribute range: "According to the base station signal report, it's this range."
"Has the God-Abandoned Domain ever been in a fire attribute state before? Can we compare?" Jiang Zhongyu reminded.
Comparing the two fire attribute state graphs, the recent fluctuation seemed more chaotic.
"Any clues?"
A group of people surrounded the light screen, analysts frowning, others scratching their heads.
Xitisi's strong attacker Chi Buyu stole a snack, yawned, showing a poor student's expression. As his eyeballs rolled, he saw Zhou Chen leaning on the sofa behind Zhu Jing Fu's analyst, looking dispirited, and immediately showed excitement at finding a kindred spirit.
He pinched off a piece of pastry from the snack, aiming it at Zhou Chen's cheek.
"Hiss—"
Zhou Chen, hit by the falling object, sucked in a breath, grabbing his face, and upon seeing the pastry, immediately locked onto the direction it came from.
Chi Buyu made a face at him.
Na Luo River's strong attacker Simos, seeing this, curiously imitated the action, throwing pastry at Chi Buyu.
Zhou Chen also grabbed a snack and threw it at Chi Buyu.
In the central hall, the smart people were all leaning forward, intently watching the light screen, their gazes moving back and forth among various patterns and images.
In each team, there were one or two people leaning against the sofa, their hands constantly making small movements.
Behind the smart people, pastries flew everywhere.
Xie Yi was listening to the Commander' and analysts' explanations while reaching out for snacks on the table.
Just as her finger touched it, a large palm from her side quickly wrapped up the snacks, brushing past her fingertips.
Grabbing at nothing, Xie Yi: "?"
"What are you—" doing, taking my snacks?
She had just sat up, about to look at foot soldier He Shuangmu, when a pastry from Ink Hills' direction, from foot soldier Zhao Jingzhi, directly hit Xie Yi between the eyebrows.
"Ow!"
Xie Yi instinctively cried out, covering her head and looking to the side.
In the Na Luo River crowd, hearing her light cry, Xie You's vision instantly swept across, Black Mamba's eyes cooled, his body leaning forward, pressing down on He Shuangmu's hand as he was about to retreat with the snacks.
He Shuangmu: "?"
He looked up in terror, his eyes flashing with guilt for being distracted while everyone else was seriously focused.
Xie You's hand seized the snacks that had been taken away, meant to be used as 'weapons,' passing them to Xie Yi while looking at Zhao Jingzhi: "Why did you hit her?"
Zhao Jingzhi immediately came to his senses from the mess of throwing, realizing he had accidentally hurt someone, and hurriedly slid to his knees: "Oww! Xie Scenery, are you okay?!"
Xie Yi rubbed her forehead, the snacks Xie You had stuffed into her hand immediately going into her mouth, waving her hand in refusal: "It's fine, carry on."
Zhang Yingjie's knife-like glare flew over, instantly making Zhao Jingzhi shiver and not dare to move anymore.
Being stopped by their team Commanders, only Zhou Chen still had room to move, because his Commander's eyes weren't on him.
Zhou Chen pinched off a piece of pastry, just about to throw it, when the analyst glanced at him: "If you waste any more, do you believe I'll stuff all these from the ground into your mouth?"
"Ahem, misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding," Zhou Chen retracted his hand, putting the pinched pastry into his mouth.
The punished few moved their battlefield to the light brain. Zhou Chen's light brain flickered for a while, and when he looked down, he saw that Chi Buyu had created a small group.
One person from each team, exactly the five who had been making the most mischief just now.
[Zhou Chen: ?]
[This person talks little: Continue!]
[Not Being a Fiery Prawn: Holy crap, stop fighting, look at the StarNet!]
Zhao Jingzhi didn't know how he had gotten mixed into this group, but when people were firing the most heated verbal shots, his light brain popped up with a special attention dynamic message.
With a brain spasm, Zhao Jingzhi directly posted hot news in the group.
[Wood Wood: ? Are you just changing the subject because you can't win the argument]
Seeing He Shuangmu's doubt, Zhao Jingzhi finally couldn't help it and said face to face: "What do you mean I can't win? Big brother here can verbally defeat a group of scholars, okay? Look at the StarNet, the Military Zone account has posted a message!"
Just as he finished speaking, he suddenly felt the surrounding gazes looking at him.
Zhao Jingzhi suddenly felt guilty, hurriedly looking toward Zhang Yingjie, one hand covering his mouth.
Zhang Yingjie raised his hand, turning his light brain around and closing the privacy mode.
He looked at his screen.
"League Five Handsome?"
He read out the group name, his eyes somewhat cool. Zhao Jingzhi shivered, weakly saying: "Commander, I was wrong, it was all Chi Buyu who led me to play around."
He didn't mean to disturb everyone's serious analysis atmosphere.
Chi Buyu shrank his head, staring at Song Yuan's gaze, very embarrassed.
"What are you doing?" Lu Hang Jiu curiously looked at his light brain, and seeing it was StarNet chat, condemned: "You're playing secretly without calling me?"
"I don't understand a single word, this is all like ancient text," he wasn't familiar with energy spectrum analysis and energy field changes, even in the competition field Chi Buyu could calmly analyze, but now he was truly happy playing with Zhou Chen, his mind not on this, making it even harder to sit still.
Lu Hang Jiu condemned even more: "You didn't call me?"
Chi Buyu: ......
When Zhao Jingzhi called out, Chen Sui had already opened her light brain, finding the Border Army official account. She looked at the dynamic message, suddenly taking a deep breath, connecting her light brain to the light screen.
"The Border Army has opened the archives."
As soon as she spoke, everyone's eyes looked at the light screen.
He Shuangmu was half a beat slow: "Ah, it's really true, I thought Zhao Jingzhi was tricking me."
"Are you sick? Why would I trick you? I was scolding the four of you alone."
Zhao Jingzhi retorted.
With one sweep of Zhang Yingjie's eyes, he closed his mouth again. The Ink Hills Commander looked at the group message, remarking in a flat tone: "This group of yours, called League Five Fools, might be more fitting."
The five people in the group looked at each other, realizing someone seemed to be badmouthing them. Na Luo River's strong attacker Simos was very innocent: "Hey hey, don't include me, I have nothing to do with that character."
Ink Hills' agile attacker was looking at Zhao Jingzhi's light brain, muttering: "Why didn't you invite me to play?"
Chen Sui shook her head helplessly, thinking to herself that there were more than just five fools.
"Ignore them, look at the message," Xie You reminded.
Chen Sui opened the dynamic.
[Border Army Zone Document Collection: Unsealed File [God-Abandoned Domain] Energy Field Analysis Collection]
First line under the dynamic:
[God-Abandoned Domain, one of the top ten energy fields, Attribute: Space]
"Holy shit."
Noya's first reaction upon seeing these two characters was shock, then he looked toward Chen Sui, "Space??"
Song Yuan noticed his action, her gaze lightly flashing, thinking to herself—
Why was Noya's first reaction to look at Chen Sui?
Is the space attribute related to Chen Sui?
She thought for a moment, her gaze turning toward the Zhu Jing Fu Commander.
Xie Chunshi's expression was calm, looking at Noya with complete serenity: "Don't doubt your eyes."
"The God-Abandoned Domain is indeed a space attribute."
Seeing this, Zhou Chen hurriedly shifted the surrounding attention away from Chen Sui: "Commander has been holding back for so long, can finally speak now, right?"
Xie Chunshi's eyes were somewhat serene as he nodded: "Space attribute, like White Day Paradise, is the only unique energy field."