211. Starbreaker Lu Chen [The Zu’an Nebula Arc Concludes!]

One day later.

The fully laden Orion finally emerged from the ancestral saddle nebula.

After completing his cultivation, Lu Chen took a bath, held a cup of tea, and sat down at the leisure table.

He glanced back at the saddle-shaped, dazzling nebula, which oddly reminded him of a horse’s back shattered by Algernon’s single strike.

Recalling the journey, the Orion had adventured through the ancestral saddle nebula for five days, weaving between planets most of the time due to the nebula’s vastness.

The three of them—Lu Chen and his companions—had successively faced:

- Escaping the pursuit of the Triangular Sail ship.

- Battling the spiral sandworms on the giant grass planet, whose roasting attracted the thunder stingrays.

- After hunting the stingrays, they encountered a humanoid skeleton demon claiming to be a walking demon of the underworld, perched atop a bat demon.

Curiously, this figure never appeared again.

Lu Chen mused to himself: could it be that this person was so terrified by Gloria’s identity that he wet himself?

However, with no sign of the Black Dragon thereafter, and the star beasts seemingly unrelated to the shadow demons, the skeleton demon’s absence was understandable.

After leaving the giant grass planet, Lu Chen sold the thunder stingrays on the Longevity Star, upgraded the ship and armor, replenished supplies, and successfully scared off the Triangular Sail ship.

Upon departing the Longevity Star, Lu Chen encountered the Pisces ship, helped the Pisces woman locate the vessel that had abducted Luke, earning five thousand spirit stones with another five thousand pending payment.

Looking back now, it was probably a trap; the Pisces woman’s constitution might be connected to the star beasts, possibly orchestrated behind the scenes by Vincent.

Later, Lu Chen was seemingly followed by a Black Swan all the way, inadvertently leading it into a battlefield between two enemies, and by a stroke of fate, annihilated both the Wolf Fang Company’s mercenary fleet and the Justice Hunters adventure team.

He also successfully hunted the duckbill star beast, sold it for forty thousand spirit stones on the Great Island of the Giant Beast Park, and then enjoyed free admission there.

By hacking into the park’s surveillance, he uncovered the details behind the star beast escape incident.

Afterward, the three were surrounded by the park’s fleet. Lu Chen accepted the curator’s invitation to hunt on the Rainstar, ultimately securing the Blue-winged Dragon’s dragon core.

During these four or five days, Lu Chen and Ellie barely slept twelve hours in total.

Only Gloria spent half her time asleep.

Even when awake, she was mostly playing games.

“I’ve learned it!” Gloria suddenly shouted, removing her gaming glasses.

“I mastered it in the game. Enlightenment has succeeded; from here on, it’s simple.”

Lu Chen understood immediately: she had wasted herself.

Previously, Gloria had failed after just a few casual attempts, sensing that the key to the critical strike lay in the reverse ripple.

So she bought simulation software for cultivation pods online, offering various enlightenment environments.

The visuals and audio were vivid, but without a real cultivation pod, relying solely on a game console made full holographic simulation difficult. The so-called enlightenment was merely a baseless illusion.

“What’s that look in your eyes? Could it be you succeeded?”

Seeing Lu Chen’s slight disdain, Gloria sat beside him, snatched the tea cup from his hand, and drained it in one gulp.

Of course, Lu Chen hadn’t succeeded either.

On the first day of cultivation, he tried to find even a trace of the feeling without using cheats or relying on the soul traits of a traveler from another world.

The answer was: absolutely impossible.

While his energy flow was smooth and his divine sense precise, the reverse ripple’s mode of action differed from that of the reverse resonance wave.

It didn’t even require a highly precise divine sense; the concentrated force at his fist or fingertips would automatically spread upon striking the target and contract toward the weakest point for a critical hit.

Resonance power was more about control, enhancing the extension of force at a single point, capable of hitting the target’s weakest spot, but with an even force distribution lacking contraction.

Critical strikes excelled at offense, while universal resonance favored control and defense.

Lu Chen’s attempt to use reverse universal resonance to directly master the reverse ripple was simply unfeasible.

This meant Algernon had already touched the edge of the chosen power…

Cultivating critical strike power was not something achieved overnight.

It truly required a process of enlightenment.

“Maybe we need another true spirit continent. If we can’t find one, we’ll just buy a cultivation pod.”

Gloria’s eyes sparkled at the suggestion.

“Fine, I’ll wait for you to give me a massage inside the cultivation pod.”

Lu Chen thought to himself, the gameplay inside a cultivation pod would be quite varied.

Meanwhile, Ellie, after a brief attempt, also realized the reverse ripple exceeded her limits and ceased forcing cultivation, instead focusing on preserving the dragon core.

“Captain, the Rainstar war has been over for a whole day. The Association news should be out. Don’t you want to check it?”

“Alright, we’ll train together after buying the cultivation pod. No sneaking off to practice alone!”

With that, Lu Chen activated his wristband’s holographic screen and browsed the news.

…

As usual.

Lu Chen started with the Empire Entertainment Weekly to see what jokes it was spinning this time.

The headline on the Dawn Route read: “Illegal Star Beast Trade Exposed at Ancestral Saddle Giant Beast Park; Silver Rose Mecha Strike Team to Take Over All Star Herds and Beast Parks!”

Lu Chen was stunned.

What on earth was the Silver Rose Mecha Strike Team?

Clicking to read further, he found that the Silver Rose Mecha Strike Team from the imperial headquarters had arrived at the ancestral saddle nebula to investigate the star beast escape incident following a report from the Galactic Animal Protection Organization.

Their investigation revealed that the Empire’s traitor Vincent, in collusion with the Star Beast Herd Adventurers, had secretly used deformed atavistic humanoid embryos to gradually breed star beasts highly controllable via spirit patterns, mass-producing star beast ships.

That was the story, but the protagonists had all changed.

Wasn’t the Galactic Animal Protection Organization a shareholder in the star beast park? Why would they turn around and report them?

Had the Silver Rose Mecha Strike Team even been to the ancestral saddle nebula?

Lu Chen searched online.

The Silver Rose Mecha Strike Team was a renowned imperial special forces unit, not only investigative but capable of large-scale warfare with their formidable mecha.

They had many mecha models under their command.

Among them was the “Bare Face” type transformable mecha, the latest unmanned model, with various grades, equipped with new weapons suitable for all environments.

“Damn, ‘Bare Face’ is just a mecha model name. The curator was so affectionate calling it that.”

Gloria, dressed in a teal martial arts uniform, sat at the leisure table holding her tea cup, sneering:

“Didn’t get a girl, huh? Disappointed?”

Lu Chen smirked.

“Well, who knows—although it’s an unmanned mecha, someone’s definitely controlling it. Maybe the mecha’s female voice comes from the person behind the scenes?”

Ellie pouted, indignant at the imperial news.

“Empire Entertainment Weekly is shameless. The Silver Rose sent just one unmanned mecha and took all the credit. Our names weren’t even mentioned.”

Lu Chen laughed.

“How could they not mention us? Didn’t another article say we cooperated with the star beasts to ruthlessly slaughter the Wolf Fang Company’s fleet?”

With that, he closed the entertainment weekly’s official website.

“In any case, don’t take it too seriously. Just enjoy it for fun. For some news, truth isn’t important. The readers of Empire Entertainment Weekly aren’t us but the empire’s people. They numb themselves, but one day, public opinion will turn against the empire.”

Lu Chen then logged onto the Federal Free Stars official site to see if there were any new pin-ups of beast girls.

To his surprise, the headline on the Dawn Route featured a pictorial biography of the mecha dinosaur Irfan.

But Irfan wasn’t actually a dinosaur; he was a dragon tamer, and the mecha dinosaur was his star beast ship.

Irfan himself was a tall man with one half of his body embedded with dragon bones, wielding a black longsword.

His half-face was sharp and stern, with a gaze so resolute it inspired awe and instinctive fear.

In his youth, he had traveled with Vincent throughout the New Federation star sectors, studying beast mastery and dragon taming.

The article introduced the recent Rainstar battle, highlighting Irfan’s combat style and his successful rescue of most of the star beasts.

Ellie fixated on Irfan’s half-dragon skeleton form, feeling it strange but unable to look away.

“He looks like he’s almost become one with the dragon…”

Lu Chen shook his head, completely baffled by his thoughts.

An ordinary human, not even humanoid, wanting to become a spiritual beast?

If you’re going to transform, why keep half your human body?

Isn’t that just split personality?

“Too blatant… This isn’t the Free Stars I wanted to see.”

After flipping through several pages, Lu Chen found no pin-ups of the Scorpion Woman, Pisces Woman, or Black Phoenix and disappointedly exited the site, grumbling:

“The ratio of men featured in Free Stars lately is way too high. Has the editorial department been taken over by women?”

Gloria summoned the portable fridge, took out some beer, and cast a faint glance at Lu Chen.

“Are you complaining about why you aren’t featured?”

Lu Chen sneered.

“If I were humanoid, I’d be on the front page by morning, with millions of fans, and female fans greeting me on every planet.”

Gloria popped open a can and drank half, pouring the rest into Lu Chen’s tea cup.

“Here, take it back… Wash up and sleep. Everything’s in your dreams.”

With that, she stretched and returned to her e-sports recliner to continue gaming.

Lu Chen sipped the cold beer and opened the Adventurers Association’s news section.

The Adventurers Association was comparatively objective.

But again, the headline’s protagonist wasn’t him.

It was Vincent.

“Former Empire Professor Hijacks Escaped Atavistic Star Beast Herd”

According to the imperial news, it was described as a hijacking.

But the article was relatively balanced, showing some sympathy toward the atavistic star beast herd.

It also condemned Vincent’s control over the beasts and his attacks on numerous adventure ships.

Over a hundred registered adventure teams had been wiped out in the ancestral saddle nebula, with more than five hundred ships destroyed.

The article even listed detailed names.

The most prominent was the Justice Hunters, recently promoted to the 100,000 New Generation rank.

Lu Chen hoped everyone was alright.

He didn’t want another news story about Quindi Oggs barely escaping.

The headline mainly decrypted the Giant Beast Park and the star beast escape incident, unfolding the entire sequence and hinting it might be related to the Black Dragon.

In fact, the Adventurers Association had video evidence uploaded to the Dark Net by the Horned Ram, but hadn’t released it, only speculating.

The news finally mentioned the Primitive Star Dome adventure team successfully hunting the Blue-winged Dragon’s dragon core in the Rainstar caves.

Directly below the headline was a compilation of the Primitive Star Dome’s ancestral saddle nebula adventures.

Lu Chen browsed through; several key events were recorded with mostly objective content.

He was surprised to find their battle with the thunder stingrays remotely recorded by a passing livestream ship.

Though the footage was blurry, it was confirmed to be the Orion and was ultimately included in the association’s news.

Fortunately, the livestream mistook Gloria’s cat-shaped shadow demon form for a ghostly assault.

Subsequent events—resupplying on the Longevity Star, participating in star beast battles, visiting the Giant Beast Park, and the Rainstar battle—were all documented.

However, the incident where Lu Chen triggered planetary array collapse on the Rainstar was too shocking.

The association speculated the planetary collapse might have been an accident or a joint effort by multiple parties.

The last news segment even interviewed the centipede man unearthed by another Lone Ranger mecha.

The centipede man brazenly claimed:

The planetary collapse was an accident but resulted from his relentless burrowing in the crust, which damaged the planetary array.

The Blue-winged Dragon was ultimately killed under his cover by the Lone Ranger mecha.

The Orion also played a bait role, and with fortune favoring them, its small armor size allowed it to successfully penetrate the ruins and retrieve the dragon core.

The Adventurers Association merely conducted the interview without commenting on his viewpoint.

Lu Chen even suspected the association might have taken money from the centipede man to give him a little publicity.

However, the association’s adventure points didn’t lie.

The Centipede Adventurer Team earned 10,000 points for this battle.

Gernika Beast Master Team received 50,000 points for directly hijacking the Black Phoenix.

The Primitive Star Dome team earned 70,000 points in the Rainstar battle alone!

Higher than the points for hijacking the Black Phoenix, likely considering the planetary array control and collapse.

Adding points from hunting the thunder stingrays and duckbill star beasts, the Primitive Star Dome’s ancestral saddle nebula journey totaled 90,000 points!

Combined with their previous 30,000 points, the Primitive Star Dome had accumulated 120,000 points just a month and a half into their expedition.

They soared from 73rd to 18th on the annual rising star leaderboard.

Ellie excitedly said:

“We only need 200,000 points to break into the top ten. We’re 80,000 points short!”

Lu Chen glanced at her flushed, excited face, thinking no wonder she was a top student—always chasing rankings.

Gloria, wearing gaming glasses, didn’t even look back as she said:

“If only points could be exchanged for money.”

“Points can’t be converted to cash, but the fame they bring can be,” Lu Chen replied.

He thought to himself: he should gather more fans or petition the official Fei’andi website as a celebrity with thousands of followers, proposing that Lu Chen become their spokesperson!

Afterward, Lu Chen casually skimmed more news.

There was no mention of Algernon or the Archer ship chasing him.

However, there was news of the Archer ship being torn apart by mysterious forces, with footage showing floating fragments of flesh in space…

The Gernika Beast Master Team had yet to comment.

Netizens were shocked, mostly blaming the empire.

Lu Chen checked the comments under his news.

Besides shock and congratulations on the Primitive Star Dome’s dragon core acquisition, two topics dominated:

First, whether Ellie’s identity was connected to Vincent’s star beast laboratory.

Second, whether the Orion’s strength could have controlled the planetary array to cause the collapse.

The discussion was intense, spanning over a hundred pages.

Some speculations about the planetary collapse’s truth were quite close but buried among many theories.

Lu Chen noticed his fanbase was growing.

He even gained hardcore male fans, some even giving him a nickname—

“Star Breaker!”

Ellie smiled, congratulating the captain.

“‘Star Breaker’ Lu Chen sounds better than ‘Star Shatterer’ Algernon!”

Gloria felt the name was too imposing, not fitting Lu Chen’s habit of running everywhere.

“If you can break stars, I can swallow stars. When I’m fully demonized one day, I’ll have a nickname too—‘Star Swallower’ Gloria!”

Swallow what?

Lu Chen almost misheard.

“You’d better swallow money.”

This time Gloria frowned.

“Swallow what?”

“You tell me!”

Lu Chen stretched with a yawn.

The ancestral saddle nebula adventure was officially over.

The process had been tortuous, but fortunately ended in a great victory with a full haul.

Next, they needed to process the spoils quickly.

“The ship is already full. We can’t adventure again before offloading. Next, we’ll head to the Crownless Kingdom’s interstellar station at top speed and take the starliner. If all goes well, we’ll catch up with the White Dew in a week!”

(End of chapter)