Xyrin Empire-Chapter 227 - The Cloak Girl
Chapter 227: Chapter 227: The Cloak Girl
Chapter 227 -227: The Cloak Girl
“Sorry…”
After a clumsy silence lasting three seconds, Qianqian finally turned her head away, her face slightly flushed, and whispered in an almost inaudible voice.
I hadn’t expected that Qianqian, even after transforming into her dark personality, would show such an adorable reaction—of course, it would have been even better if she had remembered to put me down first.
I had to admit, Qianqian’s superpower was truly incredible. Just the phrase “control over time” was enough to make any superpower user grind their teeth with envy, and now that ability had spectacularly transformed me into a comical sculpture, permanently posed in mid-air. And worse, Qianqian seemed to have completely forgotten to retract her ability amidst her apology and embarrassment, leaving her boyfriend hanging.
So, when half a minute later a thud of a heavy object hitting the ground echoed behind the already distant Qianqian, the girl, whose nerves were thick regardless of which personality was in control, blushed even deeper.
“…Sorry…”
I was officially defeated by this girl.
With resignation, I tousled Qianqian’s hair, shrugged my shoulders, and with a mix of laughter and tears said, “Didn’t you notice someone missing right beside you just now?”
Qianqian’s response was straightforward: “No!”
“That could be…”
“There really wasn’t!”
Me: “…”
As I was trying to have a fragmented chat with Qianqian, who had clearly become more difficult to communicate with after her personality change, while we patrolled inside the Command Tower, that shadow finally appeared again!
Like a swift leopard concealed in the darkness, a pitch-black figure flashed past the corner of the corridor right before my eyes.
Qianqian immediately activated her ability, while I, with lightning-fast reflexes, leaped to the side—I didn’t want to be turned into a comical sculpture by this blundering gal again!
Just as the dark figure tried to dash around the corner ahead, it suddenly froze mid-air, and with a thump, I found myself pressed against the wall…
It truly was a scene filled with comedy—if it weren’t for the fact that it was my face plastered against the wall…
Obviously, this time the other party’s luck hadn’t done them any favors. Qianqian’s superpower took effect before the figure could escape the range, abruptly halting the impressively speedy silhouette in mid-air. I finally got a clear view of the figure—it was a petite girl clad in a black cloak. This sight brought a new level of funny realization about my own previous posture. But in less than two seconds, a mysterious red glow appeared beneath the figure’s feet, sweeping rapidly over her entire body. Then, just like that, the girl landed lightly on the ground, effortlessly breaking free from Qianqian’s powerful time manipulation!
The liberated figure in black did not pause for a moment, vanishing from our sight as swiftly as a gust of wind.
I slowly slid down the wall, then wiped the blood from my nose—before jumping, I really should have checked how close the wall was to me…
“How are you doing?”
Qianqian’s voice was cool yet caring, and of course… ahem, I could still hear an almost uncontrollable chuckle within.
“Just look at that very familiar face print on the wall beside you…”
Finally, Qianqian couldn’t hold back a giggle, but she quickly composed herself and reverted to her aloof demeanor.
“Let’s chase after her. The Command Tower isn’t that big; she won’t get away.”
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freёnovelkiss.com.
I pressed my nose, replied in a muffled voice, and followed Qianqian as we ran forward.
I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination, but I felt a strange sense of familiarity with the girl whose face was completely obscured by the black cloak.
The opponent’s speed was indeed astonishing. Qianqian and I saw that black shadow, swift as the wind, flash before our eyes more than once. However, each time before we could react, the figure would vanish down some fork in the path or around a corner. My physique already far surpassed that of an ordinary human, and Qianqian had even employed the power of Time Acceleration, yet the two of us still couldn’t catch up to the person. This filled me with increasing surprise.
Not only was I surprised by the opponent’s speed, but I was also stunned by her familiarity with the place, as if she were in her own home. The Command Tower was neither overwhelmingly large nor particularly small, but each level had a different functional structure, and navigating each corridor and side passage was far from easy. And yet, during our pursuit, this girl – whose intentions were still unknown to us – could navigate through the high-speed chase with precise knowledge of every path ahead. Honestly, even I had gotten lost several times within this Command Tower!
Of course, the above does not, in any way whatsoever, suggest that I have a terrible sense of direction—listen, definitely not!!
After chasing the mysterious little girl to an exit near the top of the Command Tower and once again losing track of her, Qianqian and I stopped simultaneously, as if by agreement.
“She seems to be leading us here on purpose,” I said cautiously as I surveyed our surroundings, voicing my suspicions.
“Of course,” Qianqian responded matter-of-factly.
I freaked out instantly, “You realized this earlier?!”
“I got that feeling after she deliberately appeared before us for the third time,” Qianqian said, mercilessly striking at what little pride I had left. They say a woman’s intuition is three times stronger than a man’s, but… was I really that slow on the uptake?
Fortunately, my adaptability was quite robust. After a moment’s self-hypnosis, I managed to forget the tragic fact that even Qianqian, who was usually so thick-skinned, had better observational and deductive skills than myself. “If you realized she was leading us here all along, why didn’t you say so earlier?” I questioned her beside me.
“There was no need—whatever her goals are, as soon as we catch up to her, everything will become eminently clear.”
…Qianqian seemed truly weird in this situation…
Although my instincts told me that the person had probably set a trap for us, Qianqian and I couldn’t just give up. The Central Machine Room was akin to the heart of the entire fleet, of vital importance. Whether the stranger was friend or foe, we could not allow such an unfamiliar person to wander around the machine room. Especially since Bubbles and Little Baobao were not Xyrin Apostles adept at combat. Without time to erect defensive structures, even a squad leader-level Xyrin Soldier could easily defeat a Xyrin Host. One of them was my daughter, and the other was… cough cough, let’s just say the mother of my child…in any case, I couldn’t accept any harm coming to either one of them.
The person we were chasing had last disappeared behind the sealed door up ahead. After getting lost countless times, I knew that beyond this sealed door, there were no corridors left to hide in—it was the tip of the Command Tower, a rather spacious open-air platform. The whole platform was as bald as Er-Tuzi’s head who used to sell mutton skewers outside my school when I was a kid. Even for a little guy like Dingdang, playing hide and seek on this platform would be problematic, meaning the mysterious girl’s ultimate goal was to lead us to the platform at the top of the Command Tower.
“Be careful,” Qianqian and I said in unison, then we smiled faintly at each other, momentarily taken aback.
With a hiss, the sealed door smoothly slid open to either side, revealing a broad expanse of metal ground and the cloaked girl standing at the far edge of the platform, her back still to us.
She was clearly aware of our arrival because I saw her figure wobble slightly. But even as Qianqian and I advanced to within ten meters of her, she showed no intention of turning around.
I took a moment to observe my surroundings and realized that just as Bubbles had described, the range of the entire world was confined to this lone Command Tower. Besides the platform under our feet, everything between heaven and earth was a murky grey-black, resembling an endless fog without the texture of fog. It appeared to be simply color, a grey-black that surrounded us. This boundless “space” had no concept of celestial boundaries—in fact, once one left the confines of this Command Tower, the grey-black offered no concept of up, down, left, or right. The parallel dimension technology used in the Central Machine Room bore a mysterious semblance to creating something from nothing—a reverse space-time theoretically nonexistent but forcibly superimposed over our physical dimension. This reverse space-time was so-called parallel dimension. After all, Xyrin Apostles were not true Heavenly Gods, incapable of creating a world out of thin air. Thus, the scope of a parallel dimension is often very limited. Beyond the material area of a parallel dimension lies the edge of the Void Universe, and this grey-black “space” around us—God knows if that place even encompasses the concept of “space”—serves as a buffer between the Universe and the Void.
It was said that Ghost Energy, the most widely employed energy source of the Xyrin Empire, was extracted from this buffer zone, a conversion of decaying Void Energy. And every advanced Xyrin Apostle possessed at least one Ghost Energy Reactor set up in an Other Space, providing them with astonishing energy. It was assumed that this reactor was situated in such a special space.
Xyrin Civilization, oh… I truly wonder whether Earth’s humans will ever have the potential to evolve to such a level of super civilization, where one could converse with gods on equal terms. Just thinking about it seemed nearly impossible…
“Ah Jun, you are daydreaming,” I suddenly heard Qianqian’s cool voice at my ear, snapping me back from my wandering thoughts that had reached the distant edges of the universe, contemplating the future path of human development.
At that moment, the mysterious girl in front of us finally broke the silence, her voice resonating with the likeness of an exploding flame but also sounding quite pleasant, “Finally… I can take it back…”
Along with these cryptic words, she slowly turned around and removed her hood.
********************************************Huff huff*******************************************
Now it’s time for a no-responsibility, no-reward guessing game. Who do you think this girl is?
