Chapter 60: The Sixtieth Day of Lying Flat Like a Salted Fish

Like swallows returning to their nest, all of Sea Eagle’s starships and mecha swarmed toward the mothership at Ying Xun’s command. The starships of the other pirate syndicates turned to rejoin the formation almost simultaneously.

The Geshu Family’s vessels were a step slower, prompting Ying Xun to curse in frustration, “Geshu Jun! You bastard, are you looking for death?”

Fortunately, they weren’t too far behind.

Before the First Legion’s warships could react—while the First and Fifth Legions were still locked in a heated skirmish—Sea Eagle had already completed its assembly. The mothership pulled back and flew rapidly toward a pre-selected warp point.

As they initiated the warp, Ying Xun shouted again, “Drop the bombs!”

Thus, as the Sea Eagle vanished entirely, a dense cloud of bombs was left in its wake.

The universe was silent; the sound of the explosion could not be heard. They had already warped a great distance away. Even looking back through the portholes, not a trace of the blast was visible.

Ying Xun, however, broke into a wide grin. “Done!”

Once this warp was complete, it would be impossible for the military to catch them.

The profession of star pirate was descended from the pirates of the ancient Mother Planet Era.

Much like those pirates of old, star pirates couldn’t match the military in terms of heavy armor or firepower, but they possessed a massive advantage of their own: speed.

Star pirates were masters of escape. Even though the Sea Eagle was technically a civilian-grade starship, specialization mattered. Under the pirates’ modifications, this ship possessed speed far exceeding that of standard military vessels—especially large-scale warships.

Even in a professional starship racing circuit, this ship wouldn’t fall behind… though Ying Xun would certainly never let the Sea Eagle participate in such a thing.

In short, for the Sea Eagle Pirates, their signature skill—or rather, their life-saving skill—was running away.

Ying Xun was extremely confident. Now that they had completed the first round of warping and jumped out of the initial encirclement, the vast universe was theirs to roam. The sea was wide enough for the fish to leap, and the sky high enough for the birds to fly¹.

He gave himself a thumbs-up. “I’m a damn genius!”

Geshu Qing: “…”

Siming, however, was still replaying the battle in his mind. Looking at Ying Xun’s actions, he found himself completely unable to muster a rebuttal.

He really was impressive.

The series of maneuvers seemed fast and smooth, but it was inseparable from Ying Xun’s decisiveness.

First, upon receiving news of the sixth transport ship, Ying Xun had immediately notified the other four pirate syndicates and demanded they move together.

If all five syndicates hadn’t been present—if Sea Eagle had been alone without support or cover—they likely wouldn’t have survived the First Legion’s opening volley. Forget blowing up the transport ship; the Sea Eagle itself would have been the one turned to scrap.

Furthermore, after contacting the four syndicates, he had immediately arranged the plan: their mission wasn’t to hijack the ship, but simply and directly to destroy it.

The captains of the other four syndicates had actually agreed without a moment’s hesitation.

It was lucky they did. Had even one of them harbored a shred of greed, they would have risked missing the tactical window.

Then there was the combat itself.

Siming was shocked to find that the combat power and coordination of Sea Eagle and the other syndicates were not inferior to the military at all.

This was especially true in the early stages of the battle before the Fifth Legion arrived. The five pirate syndicates were fully capable of standing their ground against the First Legion.

Part of this was due to the pirates having slightly superior numbers. However, the pirates’ equipment was far inferior to the First Legion’s. Essentially, it came down to Ying Xun’s grasp of timing, the pirates’ execution of orders, and the near-perfect coordination between the different syndicates.

One could even say they far surpassed the First Legion in those regards.

The Fifth Legion, on the other hand, was significantly stronger than the First. If the Fifth Legion had been the ones here from the start, the pirates likely wouldn’t have had the chance to destroy the transport ship.

The Fifth Legion’s superiority over the First was evident in another way as well.

During the fight, the Fifth Legion didn’t have more people than the First. Yet, they managed to “encircle” the First Legion, preventing them from breaking away.

This was incredibly difficult to achieve, especially when the First Legion’s objective wasn’t to defeat the Fifth, but to break through and attack the pirates.

When both sides want to fight, a stalemate is easy to reach. But when only one side wants to engage and the other only wants to run, a localized dogfight becomes much rarer.

Both belonged to the Empire’s nine great legions, yet the Fifth was a cut above the First; flying ordinary mecha, the pirates were stronger than the Geshu Family who flew superior models… there had to be a reason for such an anomaly.

“Why is the Fifth Legion so much stronger than the First?” Siming asked.

Ying Xun glanced at him. “Isn’t it obvious?”

Siming was taken aback. “Huh?”

“The current Marshal of the First Legion is a piece of trash,” Ying Xun said, shrugging. “The First Legion used to be led by Lu Yuan himself. After Lu Yuan died, they brought in a new Marshal.

“If this new Marshal had been one of the First Legion’s original generals, it might have been fine. Even if the others weren’t happy, they wouldn’t have revolted. But this guy was dropped in from above—he used to manage the Imperial Guard.

“You get what I’m saying?”

Ying Xun winked. “The Emperor’s man!”

“Otherwise, we wouldn’t have jumped ship. We were originally Lu Yuan’s followers too. Even after he died, we were willing to help him guard the First Legion.

“But the Emperor sent a moron who spent every day stirring up trouble, changing all the regulations Lu Yuan had put in place. Honestly, it’s a miracle. He should be thanking his lucky stars we didn’t kill him to avenge Lu Yuan, yet he had the nerve to mess with us.

“In short, the current Marshal of the First Legion is an idiot, and the whole legion ignores him. Without a proper Grand Marshal, they still train, but they’re inevitably lacking that edge.

“If you’re looking for real combat power, the only thing left is probably Chen Feiyun’s Mecha Maneuver Team. But unfortunately, Chen Feiyun has a mind of his own, and the Mecha Maneuver Team was designated by Lu Yuan as a free unit that doesn’t have to follow anyone’s orders during a war. That idiot Marshal probably can’t even mobilize him.

“…If he had shown up today, this fight would have been a lot harder.”

Siming pondered these words, and a sudden realization dawned on him.

Indeed, in the combat style of the pirates and the Fifth Legion, he had seen faint shadows of Lu Yuan.

In contrast, the other two groups didn’t give off that same sense of deja vu.

Even though Lu Yuan had long been gone from the military… the current scene was still closely tied to him.

Siming didn’t yet know that the reason these people were gathered here was almost entirely because of Lu Yuan.

However…

Siming asked, “Does Lu Yuan have a grudge against the Emperor?”

Ying Xun was looking out the porthole. His eyes flickered at the question, but his tone remained unchanged—still carrying that lazy, nonchalant air. “Brother, isn’t that a bit of an amateur question? I took you for a smart man; surely you can see it.”

Siming remained silent.

Ying Xun gave a cold chuckle. “How could a man like Lu Yuan die on the battlefield? How could anyone want a man like Lu Yuan dead?

“Only the Emperor.”

Siming asked, “Why would the Emperor want him dead?”

“Because Lu Yuan is a stain on the Emperor’s record.” Ying Xun suddenly turned back, his gaze landing on Siming with chilling intensity. “I don’t know where you people came from. But Lu Yuan did indeed come from a certain special Research Institute. And the true person behind that Research Institute is the Emperor.”

“…”

Siming didn’t know why Ying Xun was suddenly telling him this, and for a moment, he couldn’t quite fathom the purpose behind these words.

Was it a warning? Was he being warned about something?

But…

“Thank you,” Siming said in a low voice.

Ying Xun narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “Have the girl, Zhu Rong, watch more videos of Lu Yuan’s battles and command style—they’re available online. Her style has too much of his shadow; people will link her to Lu Yuan.

“When that happens, the Geshu Family might not be able to protect you.”

“…Thank you.” Siming nodded. He had already realized this—at the same time he noticed Lu Yuan’s style in the pirates and the Fifth Legion, he also felt that Zhu Rong had long been influenced by Lu Yuan.

After playing games with Lu Yuan for over half a year, Zhu Rong’s tactics and techniques had grown from raw to refined entirely under Lu Yuan’s guidance.

Her rapid progress was due to her intelligence and talent, but it also stemmed from Lu Yuan’s near-constant personal instruction.

Under such circumstances, it was only natural that she resembled Lu Yuan.

Before there was a serious battle, people might not have noticed.

But after this engagement, anyone familiar with Lu Yuan—like Ying Xun—would certainly feel a sense of familiarity in Zhu Rong.

Was this the purpose of Ying Xun’s speech?

The Research Institute…

In the lies Siming and the others had concocted, the Research Institute indeed played a large part. After all, there weren’t many possible origins for a group of people with no household registration², no history, and no record in the gene bank. Excluding the Desolate Planet, the only places they knew of that could produce such a result were specific Research Institutes.

What Ying Xun worried about was perhaps the very thing that made Zhu Rong and Lu Yuan so similar – the fact that they came from a similar place.

The Geshu Family might help them create fake identities. However, if anyone discovered a connection between Zhu Rong and Lu Yuan, those false identities would never survive close scrutiny. When that happened, secrets that were never meant to see the light of day might be unearthed.

Lu Yuan was a stain on the Emperor’s reputation, and thus he had died by the Emperor’s hand. Would they also face additional threats because of their past experiences?

Unless they hid that history perfectly.

To do that, the first issue they had to address was the similarity in style between Zhu Rong and Lu Yuan.

Changing one’s style would likely be difficult, but they could provide an explanation – Zhu Rong was a fanatic fan of Lu Yuan who had been learning by studying his video archives.

The only problem was…

“So, is style really something you can learn just by watching videos?” Siming asked with a wry smile.

Ying Xun glanced at him. “As long as she becomes a peerless genius, if she says she can learn something, then she can learn it.”

Translator’s Notes