Chapter 3: Usurping the Nest, Warp Speed Departure【Double Chapter】

Lu Chen carefully counted the spirit stones in the cloth bag.

One hundred and one pieces—one more than expected...

Perhaps the woman miscounted.

Standard spirit stones served as the universal currency of the Galaxy, akin to gold on Earth, with immense value and doubling as a resource for cultivation.

Additionally, there were Imperial Gold Nars worth one percent of a spirit stone, and the New Federation’s Universal Currency, valued at a ten-thousandth of a spirit stone.

An Fiondi Zhou-class long-range ship, thanks to modular design and production, could be priced as low as a thousand spirit stones.

The woman's crashed, heavily modified eighteen-hand long-range vessel now was worth about a hundred spirit stones.

Thus, it was clear that the hundred spirit stones Lu Chen demanded for repairs and compensation were quite exorbitant.

He intended this as a deterrent for her.

Yet, only an hour and a half later, she returned with a hundred spirit stones—and a change of attire.

Lu Chen turned, astonished, to scrutinize her new look.

Clad in a black, form-fitting knight’s suit, donning stylish goggles, and astride a yellow scavenger-painted motor hover-bike, she appeared thoroughly sci-fi, exuding a strong wasteland flavor.

If not for the sword and wine flask at her waist, Lu Chen might have thought her a different woman altogether.

She lifted her goggles to her brow, revealing bright eyes; the former laziness and despair had vanished entirely.

"How’s this? Do I look good?"

Lu Chen mused: succubi are always beautiful, aren’t they?

He had to admit, her voluptuous, athletic figure, paired with a strikingly noble and mature visage, allowed her to master any disguise.

Whatever she wore, she appeared elegant, poised, natural, without a hint of affectation.

Merely looking at her lifted one’s spirits.

Lu Chen understood—she was a high-level succubus.

As a proud transmigrator, he was naturally immune to a succubus’s influence.

He offered no comment on her attire but asked directly,

"Where did you get these spirit stones?"

She shrugged, speaking with unabashed candor,

"Your esteemed Star Lord lent them to me… This planet’s magnetic field is so chaotic that my ship crashed; isn’t a bit of compensation fair?"

Lu Chen met her gaze—classic space pirate behavior.

Her style was unquestionable.

The question was, how could someone so adept at borrowing money end up so impoverished?

Lu Chen surmised the dangers of the Pangu Corridor were likely far beyond his imagination; one person alone wouldn’t suffice.

Having received the hundred spirit stones as he wished, Lu Chen couldn’t refuse her invitation to team up; besides, it was an opportunity for him as well.

Setting out two years early, with a powerful swordswoman escorting him… and if a beastkin girl could handle logistics, it would be perfect.

"Teaming up is fine, but I want to be captain. I decide the course, whether to explore, attack, or retreat. Profits are split fifty-fifty."

So declared Lu Chen.

The woman was taken aback, suddenly feeling a strange sense of being usurped—her nest occupied by a guest.

Yet, she found it exhilarating.

"You’re confident, huh? Makes no difference—as long as you help me earn money. But if you turn out to be as much of a fool as I am, there’s no room for two fools on one ship."

No room for two fools… Lu Chen understood; this succubus was clear-eyed about herself.

"I just checked the ship’s damage. Some parts need replacing—ones I don’t carry or can’t fabricate. We’ll have to visit Jinhu City."

Golia especially liked Lu Chen’s professional demeanor, patting the pillion as she said,

"Alright, hop on. I’ll give you a lift—this thing’s fast!"

Lu Chen shook his head, hung his armor atop the camper, and leapt down, dusting his hands.

"Speed is fine, but cargo capacity matters more. My camper is huge; let’s drive it into the city instead!"

Golia dismounted reluctantly.

Her outfit was tailored for riding; in the camper, not even a dog would envy her.

Just as they were about to depart, suddenly—

A roaring sound of high-displacement hover bikes echoed from afar.

A gang of bikers soon surrounded the entire mountain.

Each rode a large hover bike with custom skull motifs, heavy metal punk aesthetics, equipped with heavy machine guns and electromagnetic jammers.

Trailing behind was a heavily modified flying tank, an armed fortress bristling with heavy weaponry.

Lu Chen was no stranger to this.

It was the largest gang on Rust Star—the Wasteland Knights—who extorted protection fees from scavengers.

He’d never paid protection, relying on his risk-avoidance guide to repeatedly escape the Wasteland Knights’ pursuit.

He had a three-level risk avoidance system: initial warning, secondary warning, and countdown alert...

This time, though, was different.

They’d surrounded him; there was no initial warning.

Clearly, with Golia present, his risk guide judged him perfectly safe.

Catching the legendary Ghost Scavenger at last, the bikers were beside themselves with excitement.

Their attention was fixed on Lu Chen’s camper, ignoring the ship atop the mountain.

The flying tank’s hatch opened, and a burly man leapt out, half his body mechanized.

"Camper kid, finally caught you!"

Seeing Lu Chen’s camper, his half-mechanical face went green.

"Level ten engine, rusty sheet-metal hull, battered scavenger armor… You’ve evaded me for three years with this junk?"

Upon reflection, this kid was likely the rare spirit-mechanic genius the Wasteland Knights desperately needed.

The burly man extended an invitation,

"I’m Max, second-in-command of the Wasteland Knights. Clearly, you’re a rare spirit-mechanic talent. Join us and you’ll never need to run again."

Golia’s ears pricked—what, you dare poach my man?

Without a word, she drew her sword and slashed.

A blade from afar cleaved the tank’s main cannon.

However, the tank’s shell was too tough; her blow didn’t penetrate.

Still, the strike set the tank ringing, threw it off balance, and sent it tumbling into the valley.

Max was dumbfounded.

Was that an eighteenth-level Sword Spirit Warrior?

He dared not further probe the woman’s identity or strength—abandoning the tank, he led the bikers fleeing along another path.

Golia was dissatisfied with her sword energy; she leapt atop the tank, drove her blade down, and split the machine open.

Seeing this, Lu Chen hastily shouted,

"Don’t dismantle it—this tank has decent performance. Let me see if there are any usable parts inside."

Only then did Golia stop, hands on hips, breathing hard. She unhooked her wine flask, took a deep drink, and gradually regained some strength.

Lu Chen could tell: to suppress her inner demonic nature, the woman was fighting at a fraction of her true power.

Her sword energy was impressive, but drained her stamina greatly.

Still, she was stronger by far—reliable enough as a teammate.

Next,

Lu Chen chased off the tank crew.

He drove his scavenger armor and disassembled the tank, extracting every valuable part and high-grade material.

After collecting the materials needed for forging, Lu Chen entered his camper and activated his eighteen-arm spirit component lathe.

He cleansed the materials’ spirit patterns and began forging new spirit components.

Golia, slightly tipsy, her pale cheeks now flushed, watched Lu Chen repair the ship with excitement, patting his shoulder.

"All fixed already? Let’s get going!"

Lu Chen gave her a look that plainly said, "Don’t be foolish."

"Not so fast… The engine is the real issue."

"Oh."

Lu Chen then drove his armor to the engine room at the rear of the ship.

He removed the engine cover, activated his treasure-hunting plug-in’s item recognition, and inspected the engine core for faults.

In the post-spiritual age, with depleted spiritual energy, cultivators’ combat power and senses were a pale shadow of ancient times.

Lu Chen’s item detection was a tremendous advantage!

He planned to personally dismantle the engine’s core in the aft compartment.

He knew the Fiondi hybrid engine inside and out.

He cleared the surrounding items, spread a four-by-four-meter spirit-mechanic's magnetic white blanket—so that no part would be lost during disassembly.

"A Fiondi Zhou-class hybrid engine contains thousands of components and tens of thousands of spirit patterns.

To manually dismantle every part, replace the damaged ones, and clean the corroded pieces without harming the patterns—

Even for me, it requires utmost preparation and perfect concentration."

Beside him, Golia nodded like a pecking chick.

"Alright, alright, I won't disturb you!"

Lu Chen donned a simple dustless suit, grabbed his tools, and crawled into the engine to begin disassembly.

Many outer components were rusted, their spirit patterns barely discernible, so he worked with care.

"Phew..."

After a thorough session, Lu Chen’s hands and face were streaked with rust; his forehead and back drenched in sweat.

"Fiondi really cuts corners—engines from a century ago are structurally identical to today’s, and the Xia and Zhou-class engines share the same platform; parts are fully interchangeable."

Warp engines, planetary arrays, and the wide-area spirit net were the three fundamental technologies of the interstellar era.

Fiondi’s long-range civilian ships were famed for low cost, durability, and immense upgrade potential—they could be modified into cargo ships, exploration vessels, pirate ships, or even warships...

Lu Chen could handle the modifications single-handedly.

Half a day later,

Lu Chen had removed a hundred and nine damaged components and cleaned several rusted ones.

Among the ship parts he’d salvaged last night, eighty-seven could be used as replacements.

The rest needed to be forged anew.

Working until nightfall, Lu Chen finally reassembled the complete warp engine.

Running a final scan with his scavenger item detector, he found no faults.

"Excellent!"

By now,

Golia was dead drunk, fast asleep on a lounge chair by the cockpit window.

Lu Chen refilled the ship’s spirit pool with reserve spirit oil.

He then started the engine, letting it idle, beginning the test run.

The blood-orange exhaust plume resembled a sunset—beautiful.

Beautiful meant a good engine!

The roaring exhaust sounded wonderful.

Wonderful meant a good engine!

Lu Chen tested the engine for five hours straight.

He recorded the sound and temperature with a recorder and infrared camera.

For five hours, the engine’s sound and heat remained perfectly steady.

Golia did not stir.

"Perfect!"

Lu Chen didn’t wake Golia immediately; instead, he physically dismantled the ship’s control system.

He rewrote certain control spirit patterns, setting the highest authority to himself—including remote control via his wristband.

Second authority went to the ship’s AI.

Third to Golia.

It was for her own good, and for the ship’s safety.

When all was finally arranged, Lu Chen drove his armor off the ship, moved all vital components, spare spirit pools, water, food, and clean clothes from the camper to the ship’s hold.

As for the camper, it was too large to bring along.

He could only leave it behind, a parting gift for the Wasteland Knights.

Midnight arrived.

"After such a long test run, not only did nobody from Rust Star show up—even the Second Alliance Imperial Army of First Planet didn’t come… Clearly, there’s no profit to be made."

Lu Chen entered the cockpit.

He confirmed the reserve spirit oil would suffice for a month’s continuous flight and ten warp jumps.

He activated the light screen, pulled up the sector map, and set a course for the warp flight test.

"Initiate low-speed departure!"

The engine’s vector nozzle angled downward, spewing blood-orange flame.

The ship slowly ascended, gently clearing Rust Star’s atmosphere.

...

There was no grand ceremony, no thrilling escape from his homeworld—just a quiet, simple launch.

Lu Chen didn’t even wake the sleeping Golia.

Though it was his first time piloting a long-range ship, rousing her would not ease his nerves.

Gazing down at the gray-yellow wasteland planet through the light screen, Lu Chen was overcome with emotion.

He then composed a farewell email to Wang Tianlin, scheduled to send automatically in an hour.

By then, he would no longer be in the Blue Valley system.

Leaving Rust Star’s dim atmosphere, the starscape suddenly became clear and dazzling—a rippling lake of light.

After three years since crossing over, his first departure from Rust Star marked the beginning of his interstellar adventure.

Lu Chen was excited, but his heart was filled more with anxiety.

"Try accelerating, step by step, up to full throttle!"

The ship maintained steady, high-speed flight.

Half an hour later,

It had exited the Blue Valley system, entering vast interstellar space.

Lu Chen prepared for warp flight.

Warp flight, commonly called a jump, though technically not identical.

He took a deep breath, about to make the first jump of his life.

Or perhaps the second… if crossing worlds counted as a jump.

Initiating warp leaves a large spatial ripple at the origin, lasting hours or even days, affecting passing ships’ safety.

Thus, Imperial interstellar law forbids long-range ships from warping within star systems.

During warp, the ship is enveloped by a compressed spatial bubble, pushing aside external objects—not worried about collisions with ships, star beasts, or storms...

But vulnerable to impacts with massive stars or black holes.

Therefore, warp destinations are carefully selected on star system outskirts.

Before departure, Lu Chen checked his treasure-hunting panel repeatedly—no risk alerts.

"Confirm destination coordinates."

"Confirm route safety."

"Warp engine at full power."

"Acceleration countdown—ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one!"

"Jump!"

The ship vanished abruptly.