She had thought they still had a few days before departure, but the very next morning, Tianyan had already laid out the route map in front of Jiang Lijin.
"We'll take the underground passage." Tianyan pointed at the holographic screen. "We'll bypass the Empire's regular patrol routes, switch transit ships three times, and finally dock at a supply station on the Empire's outer ring."
Jiang Lijin glanced at the zigzagging route. It was cleverly chosen, completely avoiding the scrutiny of the major starports.
"Time?"
"If we're quick, about four days. So we need to leave early—preferably tomorrow." Tianyan withdrew his hand and tapped his knuckles twice on the table.
"The route works." Jiang Lijin nodded.
"Pack light, just bring something for self-defense." Tianyan added, casually sliding two forged interstellar travel passes over to her. The photos on the passes had been subtly altered, keeping the general outline but removing the bold, distinctive aura of a 3S-class female.
"You handle things well. I trust you." Jiang Lijin tucked the passes away.
On the day of departure, the purple sky of the Sunless Galaxy hadn't fully faded before the three of them had already boarded the first ship, disguised as a cargo vessel.
Jiang Lijin sat in the cramped cabin, the starfields outside the porthole washed in faint colors. The journey was mind-numbingly dull, the constant hum of the engines never letting up.
Tianque sat across from her, polishing a particle blade with mechanical, focused movements. In the cockpit, Tianyan was adjusting the communication frequency, punctuated by short bursts of electronic noise.
The cargo hold of the first ship was stacked with cheap nutrient packs. Tianyan grabbed one, glanced at the expiration date, and tossed it aside with a grimace.
"Not even a dog would eat this stuff," he complained.
Tianque pulled a thermobox from his own bag and handed it to Jiang Lijin. Inside was warm, pre-prepared food—meat and vegetables, perfectly portioned.
Tianyan leaned in. "Bro, where's mine?"
"No." Tianque didn't even lift his eyelids.
"You're biased beyond belief." Tianyan clicked his tongue. "We're blood brothers, at least give me some face, alright?"
"You won't starve." Tianque unscrewed a bottle of water and placed it at Jiang Lijin's hand.
As Jiang Lijin ate, she watched them bicker. This kind of everyday squabbling somehow dulled the tension of their escape.
"Host, do you have a bad feeling about this?" Xiao Yi's voice popped up quietly in her mind.
"Shut up." Jiang Lijin frowned.
"Got it," Xiao Yi replied.
The first two transfers went surprisingly smoothly. Swapping ships, trading identity tokens, passing through two small checkpoints—Tianyan's forged documents were flawless. The inspectors barely glanced at them before waving them through.
The supply station was bustling with people, a mix of smugglers and bounty hunters. Walking through the passages, the three of them drew absolutely no attention.
The station's lights were dim, the air thick with the smell of machine oil and cheap tobacco.
Jiang Lijin walked in the middle. Tianyan led the way ahead, while Tianque kept a close distance behind her, forming a perfect protective triangle.
A drunk bounty hunter staggered toward them. Before he could even brush Jiang Lijin's sleeve, Tianque kicked him flying into a nearby metal trash bin. The man lay there, unable to get up for a while.
The people around barely spared a glance—this kind of thing was too common at the station.
"Keep a low profile," Tianyan reminded from the front.
"He was in the way." Tianque retracted his leg, perfectly justified.
Jiang Lijin couldn't help but let out a quiet laugh.
They finally boarded the third ship.
This vessel was originally used to transport cosmic ore, but its interior had been gutted and refitted. The extra cargo space was removed, replaced by a high-power warp engine. Tianyan sat at the main console, entering docking commands with deft fingers.
They had left the station less than twenty minutes when, outside the porthole, a cargo ship suddenly changed course, cutting into their parallel route at an alarmingly close distance.
Tianque sensed something was wrong. He shoved Jiang Lijin down to the floor beside the seat, throwing his own body between her and the cabin wall.
The opposing ship's side hatch opened. Black, single-pilot fighters poured out, more than fifteen of them.
"Empire's people. Likely remnants of those nobles or Graven's leftovers." Tianyan scanned the fighter serial numbers, his voice flat. "They set the net early, waiting for us to emerge."
"They had our route all figured out?" Jiang Lijin propped herself up from the floor.
"Not the route." Tianyan pulled up the control panel, fingers flying to input evasive maneuvers. "Someone sold our departure time. We'll find the rotten rat on the black market later."
The first volley of cannon fire came. The ship lurched violently, loose supplies tumbling everywhere in the cabin. Jiang Lijin grabbed a handrail to steady herself and tugged out the modified little gun Tianque had worked on earlier.
"Can we run?" she asked Tianyan.
"We can run." Tianyan switched navigation to manual, pushing the control stick to its limit. "There's a cluster of abandoned industrial satellites on the Empire's outer ring—dense debris, larger ships can't enter. I'll take us in there and lose them."
"Then run."
"The problem is, from here to the satellite cluster, we've got eight minutes of exposed flight."
Eight minutes. Fifteen enemy fighters. It was going to be tough.
Tianque said nothing. He headed straight for the rear compartment.
In the vacuum of space, they couldn't open the hatch to engage. Instead, he pulled back the hidden weapon control panel in the rear cargo hold, inserted his particle rifle into the ship's external energy amplification slot, and took over the tail fire control system through a holographic screen.
The mining ship's weapon system was barely functional, but in Tianque's hands, it became terrifyingly lethal.
Tianque's crimson eyes gleamed in the dim cabin. He didn't even use the system's auto-lock; he relied entirely on his combat instincts. First shot, crippled an enemy's left wing. Second shot, pierced a fuel tank. Third shot, directly blew up a cockpit's life support system.
Clean, efficient, not a single wasted round.
"That kid—always plays the silent type, but he kills harder than anyone." Tianyan commented from the front, watching the monitors.
Jiang Lijin ignored him, her eyes fixed on the rear compartment.
The remaining fighters adjusted their formation, focusing suppressive fire on the rear. These were trained soldiers, skilled at using crossfire to block line-of-sight.
And they clearly knew their real target. All the fire rained down on the main cabin—where Jiang Lijin was.
To prevent the main cabin's armor from being breached, Tianque didn't cut the weapon link to retreat behind cover. Instead, he maintained suppressing fire, using his attacks to disrupt the enemy's rhythm.
A high-energy particle beam slammed heavily into the rear hull. Although it didn't fully penetrate, the violent shock caused an internal metal pipe to rupture instantly. A sharp piece of shrapnel, carried by superheated gas, shot straight toward the main cabin's direction—straight at Jiang Lijin.
Tianque twisted sideways, using his own body as a shield between the shrapnel and the main cabin door. The immense impact forced a grunt from his throat as he crashed back against the metal bulkhead.
Jiang Lijin saw him turn around. The combat suit on his shoulder was torn. The flesh beneath was cut open, seeping deep red blood.
“Tianque.” Jiang Lijin frowned, her voice dropping low.
“I’m fine.” His tone was flat, his hands still steady on the console as he continued firing.
Jiang Lijin glanced at the wound. It wasn’t deep enough to hit bone, but the gash was wide. She asked nothing more, though the warmth in her eyes cooled a degree. She turned her attention to Tianyan.
Tianyan wasn’t faring much better. He was forcing the ship hard toward the satellite cluster, but the two intercepting craft sent to block their route were faster, constantly harassing from the flanks and disrupting his navigation judgment.
More troublesome was the interference signal messing with the ship’s mental-force transmission system.
The ship’s navigation core required the pilot to sustain a continuous output of mental force to maintain calibration. Tianyan was a 3S-level pilot, which ordinarily made this no issue. The enemy knew that, which was why they were using dense interference bands to drain his mental reserves—even attempting high-frequency sonic waves to pierce the hull.
The control panel’s alarms grew shriller. Tianyan’s ten fingers flew across the virtual keyboard, nothing but blurs.
A single drop of blood dripped from his nose, striking the console.
“Left-side thruster damaged by thirty percent.” He wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his hand. “Shield energy’s down to fifteen percent. Won’t survive another main gun salvo.”
“Transfer all shield energy to the engines.” Jiang Lijin’s decision was swift. “Drop all defense. Full-speed sprint.”
Tianyan tilted his head to look at her.
This woman was crazy. Without shields, any random piece of space debris could punch through the hull. But he loved her reckless gambles—and even more, her unflappable decisiveness in a crisis.
“You got it, boss.” A grin tugged at his lips as he flipped the shield valve fully shut.
The ship lightened instantly, its speed surging.
Six minutes later, Tianyan’s nose bled again. His face was paler than paper, almost translucent, but his green eyes burned with an insane brilliance as he endured the searing pain of mental-force overdraw.
“How much further?”
“Two minutes.” He stared at the route.
Tianyan dipped the ship, diving into the first layer of abandoned orbital tracks within the outer satellite ring. Dense wreckage of metal debris surged from all sides, scraping the hull with piercing shrieks as several pieces struck.
Three of the pursuing craft followed them in; the rest were blocked by the gravity deflection of the satellite cluster.
“Now tell me—where’s our next landing point?” Jiang Lijin stood beside him.
“Q-990, at the edge-world,” Tianyan said, his voice hoarse. “I’ve got a reserve depot there. Nothing registered under any name. They’ll never find it. But…”
“But what?”
“The edge-world isn’t on the Interstellar map.” Tianyan shook off the three craft still tracking them into the satellite zone, leading them into a dense field of wreckage. “And we won’t have an easy landing. Once we’re in, we’ll lose contact with everyone.”
