Free Web NovelChapter 39: Chapter 39: Abandoned Building
The moment Jiang Yan received Shi Lan’s location, she sent it to Levito. When she saw the coordinates were on the Garbage Star, she almost cried from anxiety.
’Her Spiritual Power Level is so low, and the Garbage Star is now completely overrun with the Insect Clan...’
Jiang Yan couldn’t bear to imagine whether Shi Lan was still alive. She kept trying to send her messages, but after that one location ping, there was no reply.
Levito also became suddenly anxious when he saw the location. He immediately sent the coordinates to the relevant personnel and piloted the Teleportation Spaceship toward the Garbage Star at maximum speed.
"Major General, I’ve located Miss Shi Lan. She’s on the Garbage Star right now. I’m heading there immediately."
"I also just informed Admiral Lu and the others of Miss Shi Lan’s situation. They are also heading for the Garbage Star now."
En route, Levito updated He Hanshi on the latest progress while accelerating. Hearing the news, He Hanshi’s heart leaped into his throat, and a panicked feeling, as if he was about to lose something precious, filled his chest.
He forced himself to remain calm. "Did you bring a Mecha? The Garbage Star is heavily contaminated and crawling with the Insect Clan. It’ll be hard to rescue someone alone."
"I did."
Hearing that Levito had one, He Hanshi relaxed a little. Then he asked, "How far are you from the Garbage Star now?"
"About thirty-five minutes away." frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
He Hanshi frowned, his ice-blue eyes filled with unease and worry. "That’s too long."
Shi Lan’s spiritual power was very weak, and the Garbage Star was swarming with the Insect Clan. Every minute of delay increased the danger she was in. He couldn’t imagine how a lone female could survive on the Garbage Star, facing so many of them.
He Hanshi ended the call and dialed someone else.
"Bai Feng, take A and B squads to the Garbage Star immediately to rescue someone."
Stationed on the Border Defense Star, Bai Feng was pleasantly surprised to receive a call from He Hanshi after so long. He had wanted to ask how he was doing, but then he heard the rest of the order.
"The Garbage Star? Someone went to the Garbage Star?"
"Time is tight; there’s no time to explain. Just take two squads over there first. You must rescue Miss Shi Lan. Tell them it’s my order."
The Border Defense Star was approximately 178.9 million kilometers from the Garbage Star, making it the closest planet. To better observe the Insect Clan’s movements, large military forces were often stationed there.
He Hanshi used to spend most of his time leading troops on the Border Defense Star. As a Major General, the armies stationed there almost universally followed his commands. Even though he was now temporarily suspended due to his spiritual power collapsing, Bai Feng still responded instinctively to his order, "Yes, Major General! I’ll take the two squads over right away."
"Good. Be careful."
He Hanshi paused for a few seconds before adding, "You must bring Miss Shi Lan out alive."
"Understood."
Although Bai Feng didn’t know who this Miss Shi Lan was or why the Major General cared so much about this particular female, he still took the order seriously.
Still, he couldn’t help but think this would be difficult. ’Hopefully, that female is lucky and the Insect Clan doesn’t find her too quickly...’
Bai Feng didn’t dwell on it. He immediately gathered his equipment and led his men toward the Garbage Star.
The flight from the Border Defense Star to the Garbage Star would take about 12 minutes.
Every second was crucial for increasing the chances of survival. From his prison, He Hanshi also informed the others of Shi Lan’s latest situation. Hearing that Shi Lan was on the Garbage Star, the hearts of all the beastmen sank to the floor as they were each plunged into their own state of tense worry.
Just then, Yan Huoshui said, "I went to the Garbage Star once, ten years ago. There’s an underground base there where someone could hide."
Ten years ago, Yan Huoshui had not yet been granted amnesty by the Empire. He had once hidden on the Garbage Star temporarily to evade military patrols.
"I’ll try to contact Shi Lan now."
Yan Huoshui was in no mood to elaborate. Although he knew a bit about the Garbage Star, the Insect Clan hadn’t been so powerful back then. After so long, there was no telling what the Garbage Star had become.
’A useless female like Shi Lan, with no spiritual power to speak of, probably couldn’t even withstand the toxic fog for a few seconds...’
His heart was heavy as he sent message after message.
Back on the Garbage Star, Shi Lan had followed the coordinates and arrived at the abandoned building.
Nearly twenty minutes of her mushroom form’s duration had already passed.
She looked at the dilapidated building before her. It was a scene of utter devastation, with broken walls and ruins everywhere. Signs of weathering and decay were all around, the air was thick with the smell of dust, and the ground was littered with shards of window glass and scattered equipment parts.
Shi Lan felt like she was truly done for. ’In a place this derelict, could there be anything useful left?’
However, as she observed her surroundings, she noticed there were no signs of weapons fire. In the corner of the lobby stood a piano, covered in dust but with its lid closed. The bookshelves in the corner were also thoughtfully shut one by one. It was clear that the original administrator had evacuated under safe conditions to have been able to pay attention to so many details.
The destruction now visible all around was mostly caused by the Insect Clan.
The Insect Clan only searched for food. As for that, she had her Space Bag hanging at her waist, so she wasn’t worried. Her main goal was to find a weapon and a gas mask. For a moment, she regretted that she had only packed food and daily necessities in her Space Bag, without thinking to include survival gear.
But now was not the time to be thinking about that.
Shi Lan started with the bedrooms. Generally, the administrator of a place like the Garbage Star wouldn’t be an ordinary person. After all, they had to travel through space year-round, so their vigilance would surely be high. Just in case, they would probably keep a weapon by their pillow.
However, this had once been a large building, and though more than half of it had now collapsed in ruins, there were still quite a few rooms. It wasn’t easy for Shi Lan to search for the bedrooms one by one, and the directional signs on the walls had long since faded.
Fortunately, after a few minutes, she finally spotted a collapsed bed. Shi Lan immediately began to search and at last found a mask inside a crushed nightstand.
Her eyes lit up, but she couldn’t retrieve it in her mushroom form. She just had to bear with it for now. Taking advantage of her small mushroom size, she easily squeezed into all sorts of crevices to search for things.
But aside from that one mask, there were no weapons.
Shi Lan was a little disappointed. She glanced at the mask, memorized its location for now, and then moved on.
She must have reached the administrator’s dormitory area. There were several bedrooms, but many of the beds were bare, yielding no new finds. Seeing that her mushroom transformation time was about to expire, Shi Lan grew anxious and could only return to the room with the mask.
The moment she entered, she reverted to her human form. Instantly, the dusty air and its foul stench rushed into her nostrils without a filter. She coughed violently a few times, her vision swimming. She fumbled to quickly put on the mask, but in just those few short moments, she couldn’t stop her body from going limp and slumping against the grimy wall.
The suffocating, oxygen-deprived sensation made her gasp for breath, fogging up the visor of her mask.
Xiao Du emerged from her sea of consciousness, concerned. "Master, are you all right?"
Unable to speak, Shi Lan nodded, then shook her head. It took her a long moment to recover. Then, as if remembering something, her heart tightened. She immediately took a bottle of perfume from her Space Bag and sprayed more than half of it, completely masking her human scent before she could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
But it seemed she was too late. She heard heavy, immense thuds coming from downstairs, and the dust in the air began to cascade down like sand in an hourglass.
