Chapter 94: Seductive Succubus, Hunting Online [Three-in-One Chapter, Please Subscribe!]

# Does Revenge Have to Be Served Hot?

Lu Chen was dumbfounded.

The news said that the Guernica Beast-Taming Corps had sent out only a single ship, the Scorpion Tail, to subdue the planetary defense forces on the Seventh Planet, capture Arden Fermat alive, and then torture him to death.

The Rogel Star System border fleet that had come to the rescue didn't dare make a move at all. They only recorded extensive video evidence, then petitioned the Central Army of the Xiwei Nation to come and provide aid.

According to the descriptions of the surviving local garrison, the Scorpion Tail, though it didn't look large and had an unknown classification, could release a wide-range toxic miasma that corroded the shields of warships, infiltrated the interior of vessels, and rendered all spiritual patterns inoperable.

Before the Central Army could arrive, the Scorpion Tail had already seized three grain transport ships on the Seventh Planet and carried off three thousand slaves, including a thousand humanoid slaves.

The thousand humanoid slaves were delivered to the New Federation's outpost, Little Rakel.

The human slaves were also sent to the vassal planet of the Crownless Nation, Great Ceres.

The Association News reported that this was the Guernica Beast-Taming Corps' first large-scale liberation of a planet.

The price? The Scorpion Tail now had a sky-high bounty of one million spirit stones issued by the Xiwei Nation.

Compared to the shockwaves the Scorpion Tail sent through Pirate Harbor, what Lu Chen had just accomplished was pretty small potatoes.

The comment section below the news article was equally lively, amassing a huge following for the Guernica Beast-Taming Corps and reaping plenty of free praise like "champions of the Primordial Star Vault."

Many people in the comments were also discussing Guernica's true combat strength, estimating they'd soon break into the Three Thousand Star Fiends ranking.

Even a lot of Aili's fans came over to give the Scorpion Tail a thumbs-up.

Lu Chen finally understood what was going on, and angrily slammed the table:

"Pure attention-whoring off a trending topic... How infuriating!"

But then he glanced at Aili and quickly let it go.

"Forget it. The sooner Arden Fermat dies, the better. Aili can focus on adventuring and cultivation and enjoy the journey ahead."

"Mmm..."

Aili's eyes were slightly unfocused as she stared blankly at the holographic screen, her face still showing traces of bewilderment.

"Looks like we need to get stronger fast too. Revenge shouldn't wait overnight, or someone else might beat us to it."

With that, Lu Chen distributed some pills to Aili.

Then he closed the news feed and threw himself into intense cultivation.

Gloria, who could see bloodshed and sacrifice looming on the horizon again, recalled the bizarre sensation from last time and frowned:

"Hurry up and earn enough money to buy a virtual cultivation pod. Then you won't have to cultivate the primitive way... and when that day comes, I'll teach you swordsmanship."

Lu Chen was taken aback.

"Is a virtual cultivation pod meant for practicing swordsmanship?"

He'd heard that the thing could directly stimulate the pituitary gland to secrete dopamine, giving people an intracranial high...

If you used it too much, wouldn't your sword skills go to waste?

...

Meanwhile.

The Scorpion Tail was cruising through the stars at a distance of one light-hour behind the Leonin.

At this distance, it was actually beyond the lock-on range of standard radar.

Inside the captain's quarters.

A wooden table, a dim firefly lamp.

Scorpio, dressed in black silk sleepwear, held a cup of black coffee as venomous as scorpion poison and opened a specially modified half-bug, half-mechanical snail-phone to connect with Guernica.

An displeased, magnetic male voice came through from the other end.

"So, it seems I, as your captain, will have to learn about my crew's whereabouts from Association News from now on."

"I was merely completing the mission you assigned me. This matter involves both the Primordial Star Vault and Arden Fermat's grudge, and snail-phone messages can't be deeply encrypted. I was worried that notifying you in advance would result in the message being intercepted by the Leonin."

"Do you have any idea what you're saying? You might as well say you deliberately intended to defy me."

"I wouldn't dare. If I'm not mistaken, this Captain Lu single-handedly hacked into the Association News servers for days. Given that Arden Fermat is involved, to be absolutely certain, I had to act first and report later."

"So, you got the intelligence I wanted?"

"Arden Fermat's father, Blue Flag Fermat, had his body cryogenically frozen after death, with a portion of his consciousness uploaded into his own clone bone-hard drive... Though his consciousness couldn't be preserved, most of his memories remained. This Blue Flag Fermat once participated in the experiment as a lab assistant, but the lab's location is classified top-secret, and even he himself didn't know it."

"It seems we'll have to make a trip to the Beast Colosseum."

"Yes, I'm currently en route to the Zu'an Asteroid Belt."

"I heard that a star beast by the name of Guli Vermilion Bird hasn't returned to the park yet. I don't know if it's a real Vermilion Bird. I'll send the Sagittarius and the Capricorn to capture it. Just focus on your own work—don't contact them."

"Understood."

"Also, since you've suddenly become a freedom fighter and brought us traffic and praise in a short time, we can't afford to rough up the Primordial Star Vault again so easily... Wait until their reputation collapses first."

"Got it."

After hanging up, Scorpio opened her wrist holographic screen and pulled up the Leonin's route chart, comparing it against the various dangers the Scorpion Tail had encountered along its journey.

A look of disbelief gradually spread across her face.

She took off her glasses, rubbed her eyes, and rested for a moment.

Then she pulled up three blurry character portraits.

Beneath the portraits were dense blocks of text—the background intelligence she had investigated.

Her gaze slowly moved from the wolf-girl to the succubus.

Finally, she put on her glasses, picked up her coffee cup, and fixed her eyes on the man in the middle, whose background was a complete blank.

"It seems you're the greatest miracle of all... Captain Lu."

...

Three days later.

On the Leonin's main screen, the Zu'an Nebula could already be seen with the naked eye.

After three days of cultivation, Lu Chen, who had hoped to surpass Gloria in one stroke, had only climbed from level thirty to level thirty-two.

Aili had risen to level thirty-three—exactly one level higher than him, as if to encourage him while also humiliating him in an intangible way.

Lu Chen could feel it: after reaching level thirty, the effects of normal pill-based cultivation were getting worse and worse.

No good—he still needed to cheat!

If only he could find some treasures that aided cultivation.

For example... star beast cores.

"We're about to reach the Beast Colosseum. Let me set a small goal in advance: capture a star beast around level forty!"

As he spoke, Lu Chen was already massaging Gloria's shoulders.

Gloria's body trembled at his touch, and she went completely numb.

"Easy for you to say. Isn't your little fly quite impressive? Finally found something you can't hack into? Ugh... I'm bearing pressure that my salary doesn't cover."

"Didn't I just give you a thousand spirit stones? Plus the several hundred from before—you haven't even spent them yet. Your clothes and cosmetics can last you years..."

"Games cost money, you know?"

"That's simple. I'll hack the game for you."

"I want to buy a skimmer. Those kept mistresses all ride open-top Leaping Horse skimmers."

"That's simple. Level-fifty long-range ships all come with built-in skimmers. We'll be able to afford one soon."

"You're already drawing pies in the sky at your age?"

"I also give massages. Three vibration modes, freely adjustable..."

"Mmm... okay, okay, enough. I'm going to play games. Go give Aili a massage."

Lu Chen thought about it—she had a point. Beast hunting couldn't happen without a beast tamer.

So he went over to Aili.

Aili trembled in fear and hastily excused herself to use the restroom, dashing off to hide in the bathing pod.

She always felt that the captain's massage technique was a little off—it might have hypnotic effects.

...

An hour later.

The Leonin finally arrived at the Zu'an Asteroid Belt.

Also known as the Zu'an Nebula.

This was a primitive nebula shaped like a saddle.

Inside were more than a hundred colorful stars, tens of thousands of gas giants, hundreds of millions of asteroids, and interstellar dust and storms everywhere you looked.

All entangled with one another, forming an extremely complex isolated system.

Most of the planets within didn't orbit any star, which was why it was called the Zu'an Asteroid Belt.

The Beast Colosseum was merely a small region within the Central Colosseum star system—just a few dozen gas giants.

The master of this territory was the Star Beast Herders Adventurer Corps, ranked among the One Hundred and Eight Heavenly Stars on the Celestial Ladder.

The Star Beast Herders operated multiple star beast ranches and Beast Colosseums throughout the Pangu Corridor, holding more than half of the star beast trade market share. They had once resisted a forced annexation by the Crownless Nation. Though they'd had help from multiple parties, their strength was clearly nothing to scoff at.

It was said that besides the Star Beast Herders, the Galactic Animal Protection Association also held shares in the Beast Colosseum.

That made sense. The spiritual energy density in the Milky Way was getting lower and lower, and with rampant human hunting, star beasts were on the verge of extinction.

Star beasts weren't a single species, but rather a collective term for all beasts capable of short-range interstellar flight—for example, flying within a star system or navigating within a nebula.

Generally speaking, star beasts shared three common traits:

One: They were enormous in size. Rarely were any shorter than a hundred meters.

Two: They had high cultivation. Level thirty was the entry threshold for star beasts.

Three: They possessed spatial-type abilities.

Their flight mechanism was somewhat similar to warp flight—they'd envelop their bodies in a layer of high-pressure spatial membrane and glide through interstellar space. However, their speed was far slower than a ship's warp flight, barely matching a spaceship's normal cruising speed.

From these three angles, the power level of a star beast was quite similar to the engine tier of a long-range ship.

Currently, the situation at the Beast Colosseum was as follows:

Over twenty days ago, for unknown reasons, a star beast riot broke out at the Beast Colosseum. A large number of high-tier star beasts charged out of the central compound and scattered in all directions, even smashing through several transport ships carrying star beasts.

Thousands of star beasts were now scattered throughout the Zu'an Nebula, hiding within storms or planets, attacking passing merchant ships, cruise liners, and adventurer vessels. Some had even organized into groups and repelled fleets sent by the Star Beast Herders.

Since the Star Beast Herders' main force wasn't in the Morning Glory Route, the Beast Colosseum had no choice but to invite nearby adventurer corps to help.

They promised to buy back star beasts at twice the market price!

Injured ones would be bought back at market price.

Even dead ones could be sold at half price.

At the same time, any adventurer corps caught privately taking star beasts would be bountied and pursued.

Currently, over eighty percent of the star beasts had been recovered.

However, most of those recovered were low-tier star beasts below level forty.

Many high-tier celebrity star beasts—like the Azure-Winged Dragon and the Guli Vermilion Bird among the Four Divine Beasts—had yet to return.

Both had spiritual energy cultivation above level fifty!

Precisely because of this, within less than a month, over a thousand adventurer ships had been lost to beast attacks.

The Adventurer Association had already issued a warning: try not to go hunting in the Zu'an Nebula, especially for adventurer ships below level forty that had just entered the Pangu Route.

Aili reminded him:

"Captain, our ship is only level thirty. Isn't it too risky to barge in?"

Lu Chen was desperately in need of star beast cores for cultivation, so naturally he wasn't about to pass up this golden opportunity.

"No worries. I have a genius beast tamer and a genius sword-spirit warrior on board. This is nothing!"

With that, he piloted the Leonin and charged boldly into the colorful Zu'an Asteroid Belt.

Soon, Lu Chen received an official warning from the Beast Colosseum.

"Due to the fact that several hundred high-tier star beasts have not yet returned to the park and the spiritual-magnetic fields within the nebula are in disarray, all merchant ships, sightseeing vessels, and adventurer ships below level forty are currently prohibited from entering the Zu'an Nebula. Violators assume all consequences."

As if ships above level forty weren't in danger...

Lu Chen felt the warning did nothing to dissuade him—if anything, it was teasing people to go in.

He ignored the warning and flew straight into the Zu'an Nebula.

"What Azure-Winged Dragon, what Guli Vermilion Bird—just empty titles. I'm not interested in that flashy nonsense. All I need is to catch a few level thirty or forty star beasts!"

Gloria was playing "Star Beast Hunter" online and taking down star beasts while mocking Lu Chen:

"That's not called empty titles, and you're not disinterested either. You're just too weak and self-aware... If I were captain, no dragon or phoenix would get away."

Lu Chen walked right up behind her and snatched off her virtual reality glasses.

"Come on, come on, I'll make you captain right now!"

"What's wrong with you? I'm already the captain of the Millennium Falcon in the game. How can I hold two positions at once? Don't disturb my dragon hunt!"

Lu Chen was speechless.

A sexy succubus, hunting beasts online...

You really are something!

Gloria snatched back her VR glasses.

When she put them on again, the latency had become extremely high, with all sorts of interference. Finally, her vision went white.

No more playing...

Gloria rose in fury, her chest rising and falling with a majestic swell visible through the heart-shaped skylight cut into her top.

She glared at Lu Chen, about to explode, when the ship suddenly lurched.

After a moment's thought, she suppressed her anger and spoke earnestly:

"Lu Chen, that's not how you do things. I know you're tired from being captain and you've got complaints, but you can't hold back your crew's monster grinding. If you don't work hard, how am I ever going to get my Leaping Horse skimmer? Please keep working hard and don't get distracted from flying!"

What kind of reverse capitalist was this?

Or was it the workers seizing power?

Lu Chen was too exhausted to argue and explained seriously:

"The spiritual-magnetic interference in the Zu'an Nebula is severe. The wide-area spiritual network is very unstable. Stop playing games."

Gloria froze for a moment, then quickly caught on.

She turned and pulled out a box of offline game cartridges.

"Fine by me. I've bought so many offline games they're about to gather dust. These next few days, I'll shower them all with my attention!"

"..."

Lu Chen helplessly returned to the pilot's seat.

Under the disturbance of the chaotic spiritual-magnetic fields, the ship's radar had become half-blind.

Add to that the scarcity of stars within the nebula, the weak light, and the dense dust, visibility was extremely low...

"No wonder they haven't found all those big star beasts yet."

Because the Zu'an Nebula was so vast, Lu Chen's treasure map couldn't cover the entire region. It could only reveal the area as he traveled.

Along the way, the visibility on the ship's main screen was extremely poor. Only the faint glow of distant stars could be seen.

From all directions within the dust came residual sound waves of explosions and beast roars.

The radar worked intermittently.

Occasionally, signals from other ships appeared; other times, they vanished like ghosts.

At one point, they even picked up a distress signal from half a month ago. Whoever sent it was probably already ash scattered to the winds.

Soon, Lu Chen received an evasive warning.

【A severely damaged level-fifty vessel is approaching our ship and may cause damage to the Leonin.】

Lu Chen glanced at it.

This kind of evasive notice was the lightest level—it didn't even suggest he immediately steer clear.

It meant no life-threatening danger, and he could fight if he wanted, but it would likely end in mutual losses with nothing gained.

Soon, Aili also reported the radar reading.

"Captain, it looks like a level-fifty adventurer ship is approaching us."

"Not a big deal. I'll switch to manual piloting and enter full stealth mode. Let's see what's wrong with that ship."

Lu Chen shut down the flight control system.

He spread his fingers and pressed his palm into the groove on the control console.

Closing his eyes, he channeled spiritual power, manually piloting the ship and quickly entering full stealth mode.

The Leonin vanished from the other ship's radar in an instant.

Lu Chen flew around to the side-rear of the enemy vessel for a close look.

It was a strange, triangular-sailed ship, its hull punctured by beast fangs.

At the same time, a massive beast fang had been cleanly severed by a sword and was now embedded in the hull, preventing an open gash that would have caused air leakage and pressure imbalance.

Aside from the hull breach, the ship's engines were having minor troubles due to the beast saliva and blood mixed into the interstellar dust, causing fuel consumption to double.

At this point, they were probably on manual piloting as well.

Lu Chen guessed that this ship had its eye on the Leonin—likely for supplies... or for the twenty-thousand-spirit-stone bounty.

Gloria took off her game glasses, confused as to why Lu Chen was just looking and not acting.

"What are you just staring for? Strike while the iron's hot—fire a cannon at them!"

Lu Chen explained helplessly:

"That's a level-fifty ship. And look at those beast fangs—they could bite through a ship's hull, yet they were cleaved by a single sword strike... There's definitely a powerhouse on board. The moment we open fire, if we can't destroy their ship in one hit, our stealth will be exposed, and we'll have no chance of winning... If I couldn't go stealth, we wouldn't even be able to run."

After saying that, he added with a sigh:

"It seems everyone still roaming the Zu'an Nebula right now is high-tier star beasts and elite adventurer corps. This place is more dangerous than I imagined. We probably can't beat any star beast or adventurer corps in a straight fight—we can only pick up scraps!"

Gloria glanced at Lu Chen. This was the first time she'd ever seen him look genuinely troubled...

Aili, however, felt somewhat guilty.

"It's all my fault for being such a weak beast tamer. When it's my turn to act, I can't help at all."

"That's not necessarily true. You're level thirty-three now. The star beasts around here are mostly at level forty or fifty. When we encounter injured ones, you'll prove invaluable."

"Mmm."

The Leonin pulled away from the heavily damaged triangular ship, and only after opening a safe distance did it exit full stealth mode.

Eight minutes had already passed...

Lu Chen withdrew his right palm and restarted the flight control system.

Then he swallowed a Spirit Restoration Pill to calm his nerves.

Along the way, they occasionally spotted burned-out ship wrecks.

When the Leonin drew close for a look, they found all the valuable parts had been stripped—some even had their engines removed.

"Looks like someone's been coming here specifically to scavenge."

Lu Chen could imagine just how lively—and how dangerous—the Zu'an Nebula had been half a month ago.

The main roads had no treasures left, so Lu Chen changed course, deliberately taking less traveled routes with fewer background sound waves.

Soon, his treasure map had a reaction.

Lu Chen excitedly piloted the ship over.

He found that the target's location was on a gas giant covered in jungle.

The ship's radar couldn't detect any signs of high-tier spiritual beast activity... which was normal. If it could be detected, the hunting wouldn't have been left for Lu Chen to do.

"Stop playing games. Prepare for battle—we're landing on the planet!"

Gloria took off her glasses and stretched lazily.

She'd played a lot of games these past few days and was a bit tired. A walk outside would do her good.

The ship entered the atmosphere and flew low at a few hundred meters above the surface.

That was when they discovered the planet was large in appearance but low in density, with unremarkable gravity.

The jungle on the surface wasn't actually a jungle, but giant grass growing dozens of meters tall. Besides grass, there were flowers and all kinds of mushrooms.

None were particularly high-grade spiritual species. The mushrooms showed signs of having been picked...

Which meant someone had landed on this planet before, grabbed some mushrooms, and left—completely missing the real target.

When the Leonin flew into the target's range, Lu Chen immediately assigned battle positions.

"I'll pilot the armor down to the surface to scout. Aili, you fly the ship and follow at low altitude. Gloria, you sit on top of the ship, protect it, and be ready to support me at a moment's notice."

With everything arranged, he climbed into the armor and jumped out of the ship.

Gloria grabbed her sword and wine flask, jumped out along with him, and flipped up onto the ship's roof.

Lu Chen reached the surface.

He was like a bug diving into a patch of grass—instantly swallowed up.

It felt like when he was a kid, sneaking into a sorghum field...

The grass had grown as wild as unharvested chives, stretching to the horizon like an ocean.

But the stalks were hollow and tall, with little nutritional value.

The blades, however, were covered in sharp serrations that could actually leave marks on the armor's shell.

The ground was soft and loamy, filled with snakes, rats, and all manner of bizarre giant insects...

Occasionally, he spotted a massive rainbow flower, its petals vibrant and colorful, swaying gracefully—strikingly beautiful.

As Lu Chen was passing by one while treasure-hunting, the flower suddenly bent over, opened a gaping maw, and swallowed the armor whole in one bite.

Too bad the armor wasn't a bug...

The rainbow flower couldn't digest it and quickly spat it back out.

Lu Chen found it rather amusing.

Anyway, the evasive guide gave no warnings at all.

Even if the target star beast ambushed him, it wouldn't be a big deal.

This was a target vetted by his treasure-hunting cheat—he, or the entire adventurer corps, was more than enough to handle it.

Soon, Lu Chen spotted a mushroom.

It was the size of a skyscraper—round-capped, white-stemmed, growing in clusters of three to five. It looked magnificent and exceptionally plump.

Lu Chen had some knowledge of poisonous mushrooms.

This kind of mushroom was pale in color, with no spots on its surface.

He activated the scent collector. It gave off a faint, pleasant aroma with no odd odor—should be edible.

So...

Lu Chen piloted the armor, leaped onto the mushroom cap, and prepared to cut off a slice of the cap to bring back to the ship.

The moment his left hand extended the cutting blade and slashed down, the blade was corroded by dark-red mushroom juice. The edge went dull within seconds.

"If someone ate this raw, it'd burn right through their guts."

Terrified, Lu Chen retracted the cutting blade, gave up on picking the mushroom, and jumped back into the grass.

Looking around, a cold wind had risen, and shadowy figures flickered everywhere—as if something was watching him.

Lu Chen suddenly frowned.

"Wait... why am I being so careless? I didn't even pull up the item identification system before trying to pick a mushroom?

"And anyway, I came here to hunt star beasts. Even if I wanted to eat mushrooms, shouldn't I catch the star beast first before foraging?"

Lu Chen's mind snapped back, and he broke out in a cold sweat.

On the holographic screen in front of him, Aili was shouting:

"Captain, wake up! The mushroom's scent is poisonous—you and Sister Gloria are both under an illusion!"

Lu Chen came to his senses.

He looked around—

He wasn't just under an illusion!

Half his body was already buried in the ground.

It seemed a tentacle had wrapped around the armor's legs, dragging him down into the soft earth.

In the blink of an eye, dirt poured over his head. The world went dark.

Lu Chen was completely underground.

And Gloria, on top of the ship... was sleeping like a log.

But her sword—her sword moved on its own.

Author's note: Stuck on the writing, just one update of six thousand words today...

(End of chapter)