Chapter 625: Starship

"I never intended to keep it from you," Liu Diqiu looked away as she continued, "I know the situation beyond this world, so I can guide you better..."

She looked up at Li Xiaofei and said, "Trust me. I will be a good guide. If I’m by your side, your future actions will go much more smoothly."

Li Xiaofei’s eyes narrowed.

"You can come with me beyond this world." He reached out and patted the head of the little girl with dimples, Liu Xisheng, and said, "She stays."

"No." Liu Diqiu refused outright. "My sister and I have never been separated. If we go, we go together. If we stay, we stay together."

"Alright then," Li Xiaofei said. "In that case, both of you can stay."

"You..." Liu Diqiu was momentarily speechless. She stared into Li Xiaofei’s eyes. "You don't trust me?"

Li Xiaofei responded as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "That's right. I don’t trust you."

Liu Diqiu was silent.

"I thought that after working together for so long, we had already built mutual trust," she said, looking genuinely disappointed.

"Even though we worked together for this long, it only means that you have learned our strengths and weaknesses, while we still know nothing about you," Li Xiaofei countered.

They had come from another Earth, and Liu Diqiu already knew about their trial here. But this was the first time Liu Diqiu had revealed that she came from beyond this world.

"I have absolutely no ill intentions toward you," Liu Diqiu argued.

"And we have absolutely no ill intentions toward your sister," Li Xiaofei retorted.

"Some of the things beyond this world will require my sister’s help to proceed smoothly," Liu Diqiu tried to persuade him again.

Li Xiaofei responded, "My strength and your guidance will be more than enough. There's no need to endanger a child by bringing her along."

"You..." Liu Diqiu gritted her teeth in frustration.

She hadn't expected Li Xiaofei to be so unyielding and impervious to persuasion. She fell silent as she thought.

"Fine, I agree." Liu Diqiu finally compromised. "But you must promise me—absolutely ensure my sister’s safety. If anything happens to her, I will make you pay the price. Believe me, I can do it."

Pa!

Li Xiaofei flicked her forehead, causing Liu Diqiu to let out a yelp.

"You’re so dramatic," he said disdainfully.

Li Xiaofei then instructed the group to stay vigilant. He specifically warned them to prepare for a possible counterattack from the God Warriors of Eden. Then, he and Liu Diqiu departed from the Great Xia settlement and set off for Mount Hua.

As they followed the map left by Zhang Wannian, Li Xiaofei quickly found the isolated peak. Sure enough, there were signs of artificial excavation. The peak had been flattened. A stone platform in the center bore intricate formation lines. There were six small depressions, each about the size of a fist, surrounding the lines.

Li Xiaofei studied them for a moment, then retrieved six seventh-level star beast star cores from the Secret Time Pavilion. He proceeded to embed them into the indentations as power sources. Instantly, dazzling light radiated from the recesses, flowing like water through the mysterious formation lines. A teleportation gate materialized before them.

"This is it! The teleportation array leading beyond this world!" Liu Diqiu's voice trembled in excitement. "This is a backup array meant for emergencies. The people of Eden always like to leave themselves an escape route."

Li Xiaofei glanced at her.

She knows an awful lot about Eden. And that knowledge extends beyond just their Tower of Gods technology. She had a deep level of insight into Eden itself.

"Do we enter now?" he asked.

"Yes."

Without hesitation, the two of them stepped into the teleportation array.

***

"This place... could this be the middle section of a cosmic starship?" muttered Li Xiaofei as he stood at the edge of a vast indoor plaza.

He was shocked at the sight before him. The massive space had an undeniable cyberpunk aesthetic with dark alloy corridors and towering structures. In the distance, the massive arched windows revealed the unmistakable expanse of the cosmos. The silhouette of the starship loomed in the void like an enormous pair of wings.

Everything was very different from what he had imagined.

"This is a transit station," Liu Diqiu muttered as she busied herself with something nearby. "No need to be surprised. Eden using a Solar Whale-class starship as a monitoring base for Earth and a hub for resource transfers makes perfect sense, no?"

Li Xiaofei thought about it carefully.

It did.

Liu Diqiu continued, "Originally, the moon was an excellent surveillance base, but unfortunately, it was destroyed by Earth's former number-one Extraordinary One, Li Guorui... Here, take this."

"What is it?" asked Li Xiaofei, examining the necklace pendant he had just been handed. It looked oddly like a dog collar.

"An information disruptor," Liu Diqiu explained. "With this, we can temporarily pass as crew members aboard the starship. It will keep us from being exposed—at least for a while."

Li Xiaofei put it around his neck. "That easy?"

"A Solar Whale-class starship is over ten thousand meters in length, width, and height. Its internal structure is incredibly complex; it’s practically a mid-sized city in space. At full capacity, it can accommodate up to a hundred thousand people, and during normal operation, it has over ten thousand personnel across various professions. Disguising ourselves won't be difficult."

Liu Diqiu paused, then added, "Relax, no one understands Eden better than I do. What we need to do now is infiltrate a residential sector, secure suitable identity records to perfect our disguise, figure out the starship’s military configuration, and investigate how they plan to counterattack Earth."

"Got it," Li Xiaofei agreed.

It was better to listen to advice than rush in blind. His initial plan had been to wipe out Eden's outpost using brute strength, but after witnessing the sheer scale and grandeur of this starship, he was shaken by the technological prowess of this extraterrestrial civilization.

So he decided to play it safe. Liu Diqiu led him out of the teleportation chamber and through the corridors as they cautiously advanced deeper into the starship.

"I feel like something’s off," Li Xiaofei said, "The plaza where we landed, the corridors, the elevator transit stations, even the mechanical bay—why haven’t we seen anyone?"

It wasn’t just a lack of people; he had yet to spot a cyborg either. It was silent. The eerie silence of the starship felt unnatural and unsettling. It was a little like stepping into a soundproofed library.

"Maybe they’re all dormant right now?” Liu Diqiu frowned but remained stubborn. "I know this place well. Trust me, no one understands this starship better than I do."

"Alright then." Li Xiaofei shrugged.

They walked for half an hour without encountering a single living being.

"What’s that?" asked Li Xiaofei.

A faint metallic tang lingered in the air—blood. Li Xiaofei looked down. The black metal flooring beneath their feet had been scratched, as if something had clawed or bitten into it with their fingers and teeth.

"Not surprising," Liu Diqiu said casually. "Fights and killings happen frequently inside the starship. There are even cases of robbery. The security here isn’t great."

"Really?" Li Xiaofei remained skeptical.

"Of course! No one knows Eden and its starships better than I do." Liu Diqiu thumped her chest confidently.

"Is that so?" Li Xiaofei pointed ahead and asked, "Then what’s that?"

Liu Diqiu turned to look, and instantly froze.