Chapter 15: Fifteenth Day of Being a Salted Fish

The crowd below was momentarily stunned, but Goudan quickly urged them to line up and start moving things.

In truth, there wasn’t much to be shocked about.

Lu Yuan’s existence, his temperament, and his abilities were an open secret to the residents of this area.

Lu Yuan had been here for nearly a year, and his small shop had been open for ten months. The timing of his arrival perfectly coincided with when things in this sector began to change. Everyone had their suspicions. The fact that Goudan went in and out of the shop every day further proved Lu Yuan’s special status.

Lu Yuan himself had never made a conscious effort to hide anything. He hadn’t been particularly serious about concealing his identity anyway. After all, many people here didn’t even have a concept of what a Marshal was, so there was no need to go through the extra trouble of hiding it.

When he first arrived, Lu Yuan had even given nearly half a starship to Blacksmith Old Fourth. By now, many people in this district were using tools made from materials that once belonged to his ship.

Given the circumstances, even if the residents didn’t have much direct contact with Lu Yuan, they still felt they knew him to some extent. Their current shock was more about his sudden appearance and the massive commotion he caused by shooting down the Garbage Ship.

Thus, by the time the starship landed steadily on the ground under Lu Yuan’s control, Goudan had already successfully organized everyone into lines, ready to begin hauling the trash.

There was no resistance. Everyone was excited and highly cooperative.

Perhaps in a couple of days, when some people had time to process it, they might worry that Lu Yuan’s actions would mean no more Garbage Ships would ever come here again. But at this moment, no one was thinking about that.

The same thought occupied every mind:

We’re rich!

That was an entire starship!

It was different from Lu Yuan’s Command Ship. Although Lu Yuan’s ship was larger, more luxurious, and better equipped, it had drifted through the distant cosmos to get here, losing most of its components along the way until only a battered shell remained.

But the one before them was remarkably intact. It could even still be used. There was fuel in the tanks and supplies in the storage rooms meant for the crew. Even the chairs in the control room were more comfortable than sitting on a wooden stump!

The tears of the hopeful crowd practically drooled from the corners of their mouths.

Lu Yuan didn’t pay any of this any mind.

Sitting in the starship’s control room, watching the residents of the Desolate Planet swarm like ants in the cargo bay monitors to move supplies, Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes in thought. He suddenly tapped the head of the person closest to him. “Tell me, what’s the deal with that pile of explosives?”

Beside him were five people tied up neatly. They were the crew of this starship.

Lu Yuan didn’t intend to make things difficult for them, but he obviously couldn’t let them wander off freely, at least not yet. So he kept them by his side for the time being, planning to “negotiate” with them later to have them stay on the Desolate Planet permanently.

In passing, they could also teach Siming and the others how to pilot a starship, which counted as recycling waste.

Since he hadn’t had the chance to discuss future arrangements with them yet, Lu Yuan had no choice but to keep them bound nearby. The one he tapped was the captain of the ship.

Compared to the people outside, the captain was the one truly paralyzed by shock.

Who could have imagined that in such a seemingly unremarkable little corner of a Desolate Planet, there lived a powerhouse capable of dismantling a starship with his bare hands?

The captain looked at Lu Yuan with tearful eyes, his mouth agape, unable to find his voice for a moment.

Siming had slipped in at some point and tapped the captain’s head with a smile. “Is there even a need to ask?”

“Yes,” Lu Yuan replied, contrary to his expectations.

Siming frowned. “Isn’t it simple? His mission was to monitor the situation in this area. If everyone remained in a state of chaotic disorder, he’d drop the normal cargo. If a manager actually appeared and established order, he’d drop the explosives to level the place.

“As for why they’d do that, it’s certainly worth asking, but you can see he’s just a low-level worker. He couldn’t possibly know the reason behind it.”

“I know that,” Lu Yuan said calmly. “That’s not what I want to ask. The secrets behind the Desolate Planet are what you want to know; I’m not interested.”

He already had a general idea of what Siming was talking about, especially since Siming had mentioned related matters before.

If he hadn’t been prepared, he wouldn’t have been able to confirm there were explosives inside the moment the Garbage Ship appeared and come out to deal with it.

But he had no interest in the reasons why the Desolate Planet had become what it was, which was what Siming wanted to investigate.

His previous help to Siming had been nothing more than a whim. Intercepting the Garbage Ship this time had nothing to do with Siming either. He simply didn’t want to see the place where he lived comfortably suddenly blown into ruins.

Although he had indeed decided to hand the Garbage Ship over to Siming so the boy could study starship construction technology, that was also just a convenience. The primary reason was that he was too lazy to deal with such a massive pile of junk.

It was a hassle.

Therefore, the question he wanted to ask the captain had nothing to do with Siming’s concerns.

It was about something else:

The markings on the explosives in the cargo hold were far too familiar.

“What I want to ask is,” Lu Yuan looked back at the captain, using a bit of Mental Power to influence his emotions and help him relax enough to answer.

“Why were you able to get explosives produced by the First Legion?” he asked. “I wasn’t aware that First Legion explosives were being leaked to the outside world.”

“We went to Planet Lu to get them. They said Planet Lu had a batch of expired ammunition and told us to transport it to the garbage planet.”

“Who approved your documents to enter the Planet Lu port?”

“Marshal Wen Shen-“

The captain’s voice cut off abruptly.

As if triggered by a word in his own speech, he suddenly realized something. He snapped out of the semi-hypnotic state instantly, his eyes widening as he stared at Lu Yuan. His expression was one of pure horror, as if he had seen a ghost. When he spoke again, he actually stuttered. “Mar… Marshal Lu…”

Before the others nearby could react to what he was saying, Lu Yuan’s hand moved like lightning. His fingertips tapped the foreheads of all five people in succession. They fell unconscious immediately, their bodies slumping to the floor.

Siming looked at Lu Yuan thoughtfully. “Hmm… Marshal?”