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Chapter 72: Hermit

Old K stood by the window, watching that man named Mountain Hawk depart onboard his spaceship before he returned to the sofa and took that brown leather pouch in hand. He loosened the drawstrings and looked at the content for some time.

Xia Fei was positioned behind the old man, so he was unable to make out what was inside the pouch.

Standing up and hesitating for a while, Old K walked toward an oil painting in the room. It was a painting of a half-naked woman with ample bosoms and tempting snow-white skin.

He pressed a button cleverly concealed in its picture frame, and the painting suddenly popped open to reveal a hidden safe behind.

Only after placing his right hand on the palm-print identification and a red beam, which had shot out, scanning his irises did the safe open for him.

‘With such strict security systems in place, I wonder if it’s something very valuable...’ Xia Fei muttered to himself.

Old K then headed to the bathroom after closing the safe. It did not take long for the sound of running water to be heard from inside.

Xia Fei did not delay. Immediately opening the doors to the dumbwaiter, he shifted to the side of the bathroom and plastered his body as close as possible to the wall.

The bathroom door was opaque, so Xia Fei could clearly see a figure lying in the bathtub inside, face tilted up with a hot towel covering his face.

Xia Fei smiled. He lightly pulled the door open and walked in, placing his Chasing Light under Old K’s neck while using his left hand to remove the towel covering his face.

Unexpectedly, Old K’s face was very composed, his squinting eyes not revealing a hint of nervousness in the slightest.

Xia Fei could not help but respect his calmness. The old coot truly lived up to his name as a notorious ex-pirate for him not to show any reaction despite his circumstance.

He glanced at Xia Fei and asked, “Did Mountain Hawk send you here?”

Xia Fei shook his head lightly. “Nope. It was Inert Star that sent me here.”

“Inert Star?” Old K was baffled, his forehead forming distinct ridges.

He tried to recall who that was yet could simply not. He sighed in the end. “Sorry, I’ve offended too many people in my life. It’s impossible for me to remember all of them.”

“Indeed, you won’t be able to remember, for Inert Star is just a dog,” spat Xia Fei icily.

Old K’s eyes exuded a sharp glint that drastically contrasted his age. “You’re killing me because of a dog?”

His tone was one of skepticism and indignation with his voice betraying a slight tremor. “This is ridiculous. I’ve lived for seventy years and been in every sort of situation, yet I’m actually about to die because of a dog. I simply refuse to believe it.”

Xia Fei very carefully appreciated the expression on Old K’s face. “You don’t have to believe it, but I’m truly out to kill you now because of a dog named Inert Star.”

Old K heard Xia Fei’s words and felt that he did not appear to be lying. His wrinkled face went red, then white, before finally settling to green.

A notorious pirate ended up dying because of a dog. Such an ending did not settle well with the prideful Old K.

“There’s something very precious in my safe. Will it be enough to exchange for my life?” asked Old K in a voice that betrayed his age.

“Your life isn’t worth anything—just a dollar at most.” Xia Fei beamed. “The thing is that Inert Star’s life was very precious.”

Old K gritted his teeth, lifting his left hand to show a large spatial ring. “And if we add this in?”

A spatial ring needed a spatial stone inlaid as a medium to connect to the second-dimensional space, and usually, the larger it was meant the purer the rock, which in turn meant it had a stronger link to the second-dimensional space.

After all, anyone who would attempt to access the second-dimensional space needed a spatial stone to create the passage and make the connection. If the passage was unstable, it could very well spell the loss, damage, or doom for an item in the middle transit.

Old K’s spatial ring was evidently far larger than the average spatial rings; its green luster was more exquisite and purer with no trace of other colors.

“This ring has over twenty cubic square meters of space. I do believe that you know just how expensive this is.” Old K elaborated this with some forlorn desperation.

The price of a spatial ring would usually increase exponentially with every increase in size. A ring with twenty cubic square meters of space would be worth forty, and considering that there would be a seventy-five percent premium for rings over ten cubic square meters, that essentially meant that just the ring alone was worth over seventy billion star coins!

Such a large sum was pretty much enough to buy the whole of Australia, yet Xia Fei remained as expressionless as ever, though he had already been quite surprised upon learning the ring’s massive storage space.

“Alright. I promise not to kill you off too painfully,” said Xia Fei very readily.

That was when Old K finally understood that there was no escaping this predicament. He shut his eyes and tried to pretend to be calm, but that heaving chest betrayed his fear in the face of death.

*Shing!*

Chasing Light created a lone flash of cyan, which was aimed right at Old K’s neck, slicing off his arteries and windpipe in one motion.

Fresh blood flowed from the wound and into the bathtub, dyeing this clear bathwater red. Old K shuddered for but a moment before breathing his last.

Xia Fei had just retrieved the spatial ring from the old man’s hand when he heard a voice coming from downstairs. “Old K? Old K? The control tower said that Mountain Hawk is turning back. Do you wish to see him?”

Xia Fei furrowed his brows, kept the ring, and quickly walked out of the bathroom, choosing to hide behind a row of bookcases.

The man downstairs shouted twice, and when he did not get a reply, he gingerly pushed the door open and entered. The blond man from before was standing to the front with the short-haired bodyguard right behind him.

Xia Fei wiped his Chasing Light onto his clothes from behind the bookcase, cleaning off the blood as his muscles tensed, quickly thinking up a plan of escape.

The two men hesitantly made their way to the bathroom; the blond man then reached out to push open its door.

“Ah!” The moment he discovered Old K’s dead body, he froze momentarily before screaming, “Quick call the cops! There’s an assassin on the loose!”

That was when something strange suddenly happened!

Xia Fei saw that short-haired man behind unexpectedly reaching out to grab hold of the blond man’s neck and, with the strength of just that one hand, he crushed the other’s neck!

The blond man’s neck was crushed just like that; this kill had been executed rather neatly and efficiently.

That blond man’s head drooped to the side, like a roast chicken which had its neck snapped off.

*Crash!*

The short-haired man tossed the corpse into Old K’s bathroom and very calmly pulled out a communicator as if nothing had happened.

“Old K’s in the middle of his bath right now. Let Mountain Hawk’s warship land first and wait downstairs,” ordered the short-haired man.

The situation had developed in a manner Xia Fei could not have foreseen. He knitted his brows. “Just what is going on here?”

The short-haired man turned around and swept the room with his cold gaze. “I know that you haven’t left yet. Do you wish to come out of your volition, or do you wish for me to drag you out?”

Just as he posed that question, a powerful force filled the entire room as if searching for Xia Fei’s position.

“He knows I’m here?” Xia Fei was utterly shocked.

All of a sudden, that short-haired man charged toward Xia Fei’s hiding place, quick as a bolt of lightning!

Holding his hands as if they were eagle claws, he went straight for Xia Fei’s face.

It was like Xia Fei was drunk; his entire body collapsed, and in that instant when he lost his balance, his body astonishingly twisted toward his right.

The short-haired man’s arm brushed past Xia Fei’s scalp. Failing to grab hold of him, he turned and lifted his leg to deliver a kick on Xia Fei’s abdomen.

*Whoosh!*

The sound of rushing wind could be heard, a clear indication of his outrageous strength!

Xia Fei did not react any slower; abruptly placing his right hand in front of his body, he aimed his Chasing Light for the ankle. He intended to borrow the strength from that powerful kick to break his opponent’s leg.

“Hey!” exclaimed that short-haired man, bending his knee so that his leg flashed to the side; he barely avoided Xia Fei’s blade.

Xia Fei’s heart throbbed in surprise. To be capable of making such a swift response on the fly as he had just done, this short-haired man was very possibly much more skilled than he was.

Xia Fei’s legs did not stop as he backed toward the window.

There were several dozens of guards stationed outside the window. Jumping through it to escape would immediately put him in a dangerous situation, and he had no intention of doing so unless it was his last resort.

However, it seemed that staying in this room with this short-haired man was even more dangerous, and Xia Fei could simply not find a chance to escape through that dumbwaiter.

The short-haired man could tell the decision Xia Fei had made with a glance, and he did not seem willing to see him break the window to escape. He took two steps backward and called in his deep voice, “This is Monastics’ business. Anyone not involved can scram!”

Xia Fei froze. “Monastic? Is he someone from the Monastic Order?”

Monastics and Adjudicators were members hailing from two of the strongest fighter organizations in the Pan-Human Alliance, but unlike the Adjudicators, Monastics were rather lowkey; few of them would take the initiative to appear in public.

The two organizations had a competitive relationship, and while they appeared to be united and peaceful on the surface, they were actually actively fighting each other from behind the scenes.

If this man was truly a Monastic, why would he choose to appear here?

Without relaxing one bit, Xia Fei got into a defensive stance. He maintained his vigilance toward this short-haired man.

When the short-haired man saw that Xia Fei refused to believe what he had said, he pulled out a silver shield-shaped badge from his spatial ring and waved it before his eyes.

A scimitar and a short bow were carved on the shield, with some wiggly lines right at the bottom. It was indeed the badge that a Monastic would have, and from the number of wiggly lines, Xia Fei could tell that he was of a decent tier, probably a mid-rank.

“Who are you? Friend or foe?” The short-haired man asked in a grave voice.

Xia Fei considered it for a while before brushing his spatial ring and taking out his cadet Adjudicator badge.

The short-haired man inspected it for some time, almost laughing as he asked, “An apprentice Adjudicator? Did your Adjudicator Union actually send you on a mission?”

Xia Fei did not give any indication of agreement or otherwise, keeping his eyes trained on the short-haired man.

That was when the roar of a warp engine could be heard above. Following this, Mountain Hawk’s Executioner-class frigate descended on the landing apron.

The short-haired man somewhat anxiously glanced outside the window, then somberly said, “I don’t care what your Adjudicator Union is up to. All I want to know is one thing: Did Mountain Hawk hand a brown pouch to Old K?”