Tianyan sucked in a sharp breath, quickly pulling his mental energy back into his mental sea. The imposing little black dragon instantly transformed into a wisp of dark light, drilling into the space between his brows.
"Boss, go easy on me—I’ve barely caught my breath. Are you trying to kill your own husband?"
Tianque let out an extremely brief, cold laugh beside them. He twisted his wrist, and a faint ripple of mental energy stirred the air. A small white dragon materialized in midair, its scales gleaming with a pearlescent cold light, its entire body a flawless snowy white.
Compared to the black dragon’s flamboyance, the white dragon was slenderer and more elegant. Its temperament matched its owner’s—it quietly drifted over to Jiang Lijin’s hand and nuzzled her palm with its small, horned head.
Jiang Lijin gave it a casual stroke. The scales were cool to the touch, the texture exquisite. She rubbed it a few more times, and the little white dragon squinted in contentment.
"What’s the deal?" Tianyan protested, pointing at the ingratiating white dragon. "He gets to be called well-behaved, and mine has to take a beating?"
"Because white looks better." Jiang Lijin pulled back her hand, brushed the sand and dust off her clothes, and answered with complete justification.
Tianyan, deflated, said nothing more. He turned around and started gathering the scattered equipment.
Q-990 Rim Star was a total wasteland. There was no atmospheric circulation system, and metal-particle-laced sandstorms raged year-round. The backup supply depot Tianyan mentioned was actually a shelter retrofitted from an abandoned underground mine. The entrance was extremely well-hidden, tucked behind a pile of weathered boulders.
The three of them braved the wind and sand to descend underground. Jiang Lijin walked in the middle, Tianque led the way, shoving aside a piece of falling rock with his body. Tianyan brought up the rear, casually erasing their footprints as he went.
The interior of the depot was small. The air was thick with the stale smell of old machine oil. In the corner were a few rusted storage crates, and embedded in the wall was an energy matrix that barely functioned. No signal, no network—totally cut off from the world.
Tianque dropped the supply pack from his back onto the ground and skillfully turned on the life support system. The ventilation vent let out a grinding noise; a few seconds later, the stale air began to circulate.
The temperature difference between day and night on the wasteland was extreme. Outside, sandstorms raged, but underground it was muggy and hot.
During the three days they had been out of contact, they stayed inside this cramped underground space.
Jiang Lijin used the special medicine Xiao Yi had provided and changed Tianque’s bandages. The penetrating wound was healing quickly under the drug’s effect.
She lowered her gaze, her eyes fixed on his injury.
Tianque stared straight at her. Her figure was reflected in his red pupils. He could feel her attitude softening—this acceptance, no longer treating them as outsiders, was far more effective than any method of soothing mental energy.
Tianyan sat not far away at a workbench, disassembling a communication module salvaged from the wreckage of their starship. Sparks flew from the welding torch, casting light on his focused green eyes.
"We’ve been out of contact for three days," Jiang Lijin remarked casually.
Tianyan turned off the welding torch and wiped his hands with a rag. "That kid Tinia is probably losing his mind right now."
Jiang Lijin pulled over a chair and sat down. No need to guess. If Tinia couldn’t find her, he’d definitely blow up the bounty list on the interstellar black market. Yunding Group had money to burn—he would drown every imperial remnant involved in the attack with cash.
In her mind, Xiao Yi made a timely appearance: 【Host, the bounty has been raised to 1 billion star coins while you’ve been missing. The entire black market is buzzing. Tinia is probably smashing his neural interface in a panic right now.】
Jiang Lijin said nothing.
"Baal is even more troublesome," Tianyan said, leaning against the workbench, his tone tinged with schadenfreude. "With his temper, his first instinct will be to blame the Empire. The main cannons of the First Fleet are probably already charged and ready to go, just waiting for an excuse to blast the Empire’s starport into dust."
Xiao Yi reported: 【Baal’s fleet has already crossed the border buffer zone, silent on all channels. He means business this time, Host!】
Jiang Lijin bit into a bland energy bar. What worried her wasn’t Baal opening fire—it was the old emperor. If he learned she was attacked and missing, he might waver. He might try to reclaim his regency power. Or even go along with the idea and wash the Empire’s hands of any blame for the attack.
"By now, Chiron should have reached the capital," Jiang Lijin said slowly, chewing on the energy bar as she analyzed the situation. "He’s taken over the medical team. The old emperor’s life is in his hands. He’s smart enough to know how to restrain those old foxes in the cabinet."
Chiron just needed to sit in the Central Hospital director's office to throw the Empire’s power centers into chaos. He knew what she wanted. He would stabilize things on the capital. Tinia would apply economic pressure. Baal would mass troops at the border. With the three of them working in balance, the Empire wouldn’t dare make a reckless move.
The only variable was when she—the core figure—could reappear.
"First we have to get out of this hellhole," Tianyan sighed, pointing at the pile of parts on the table. "This dump has too much magnetic interference. Regular signals can’t get out. I took apart the star drive’s jump engine and I’m trying to rig it into a directional pulse transmitter."
"Who can we contact with it?" Jiang Lijin asked.
"Just blind luck," Tianyan said, walking over and sitting down beside her, casually pulling the half-eaten energy bar out of her hand and taking a bite. "Pulse signals penetrate deep, but range is limited. We’ll need a passing starship or we have to ping the nearest interstellar relay station."
Jiang Lijin didn’t bother taking the energy bar back. She just shot him a look. Over the past few days, her guard against the two brothers had basically dropped. After walking the edge of life and death, most of those defenses seemed unnecessary.
Tianque finished pulling on his shirt. He brought over a cup of water and handed it to Jiang Lijin.
He sat down naturally on her other side, his gaze landing coldly on the energy bar in Tianyan’s hand. Tianyan pretended not to notice, chewing especially loudly out of spite.
In this cramped space, the three of them pressed together, the air carrying not just the smell of machine oil but also the scent of each other.
"The storm outside has stopped," Tianque spoke, breaking the silent standoff between them. "We can set up the antenna aboveground."
Tianyan swallowed the last of the food, stood up, and stretched. "Alright, time to get to work."
The three of them carried the cobbled-together transmitter and crawled out of the underground depot.
The Gobi was filled with weathered rocks. The sky was a strange, dark red. Without starlight, everything around them was dim and desolate.
Tianque shouldered the heavy metal antenna and leaped lightly onto the tallest rock. He found the right angle on top, wedging the base firmly into a crack. Tianyan worked below, adjusting the frequency and connecting the power lines.
Jiang Lijin stood in the wind, watching them work. This feeling of fighting side by side was new to her, but not disagreeable.
"All set," Tianque jumped down from the rock, brushing the dust from his hands.
Tianyan pressed the start button. The transmitter let out a low hum. A blue indicator light flickered on, beginning to send pulse signals into deep space.
"The signal’s out," Tianyan said, eyeing the terminal in his hand. "Now we just wait. If any starship picks it up, Tinia’s bounty network will lock onto the coordinates immediately."
The wind and sand rose again, battering the visor of her protective suit. Jiang Lijin looked up at the crimson sky.
In this forgotten sector of the galaxy, their distress signals vanished into the void of deep space. But she knew someone would find her—her cheap beast-husbands were probably stirring up chaos across the entire interstellar realm over her disappearance.
She turned and walked toward the entrance of the underground storage facility.
“Go back and wait,” she said calmly. “They’ll come looking for us.”
