The signal tower icon above Xiao Yi's head kept spinning.
After a few crackles of static electricity, three holographic screens projected onto the clearing in the center of the restricted zone.
The first screen lit up with Tinia's face, his magnified features pressed directly against the lens. He wore a dark suit, with the top-floor conference room of Cloudream Group visible behind him. A bunch of executives sat obediently, hardly daring to breathe.
"Sister," Tinia shouted, his loud voice shattering the otherwise serious atmosphere in the conference room. "You finally contacted me. Is the food in Guixu agreeing with you? Has anyone bullied you?"
Before Jiang Lijin could speak, a second screen popped up.
Baal was wearing his military uniform, his collar open, leaning back in his command chair while cleaning a gun. When he saw Jiang Lijin on the screen, along with Tinia's face, the Federal Commander-in-Chief frowned.
"What's this?" he said. "The military's encrypted channel got hacked. I thought the Empire had launched an attack. Jiang Lijin, your little system over there is getting bolder by the day."
Xiao Yi, hiding behind Jiang Lijin's legs, extended a mechanical claw and flipped him off.
The last screen flickered twice, and Chiron appeared.
Chiron sat in the side study of the Imperial Palace, with documents piled beside him and a hint of red hair visible in the distance. He looked up toward Jiang Lijin.
"Lijin," Chiron said gently, noticing the redness at the corners of her eyes. "What happened? You've been crying."
At his words, the other two screens went silent.
The smile vanished from Tinia's face.
"Who did it? Did those two good-for-nothings, Tianyan and Tianque, fail to protect you?"
Baal slammed his gun on the table.
"Send me your coordinates. I'll complete jump preparation in ten minutes."
Jiang Lijin rubbed her forehead, finding them too noisy.
"I'm fine."
The three men fell quiet.
Jiang Lijin pulled out a chair and sat down.
"No one bullied me. I contacted you because I have a big problem that I need your help with."
She explained how the Source Core was nearly depleted and that the Blue Star people were facing genetic collapse.
"Right now, I need high-purity psychic energy to fill the Source Core's vacancy," Jiang Lijin said, looking at the three screens. "You three, plus Tianyan and Tianque, are all 3S-level males. I plan to use my Purification Domain as a relay to extract your psychic energy and reignite the Source Core."
No one spoke.
Seth, standing beside the stasis pod, stared at the screen. He understood the danger of this request.
For males, psychic energy was the essence of life itself. Forcibly extracting it could dry up their psychic sea, turning them into disabled wrecks at best, and killing them at worst.
Would these males take such a huge risk for Blue Star?
Tinia spoke first. He rested his chin on one hand, his tone quite casual. "That's it? I thought it was something serious. Go ahead, Sister. Take as much as you want. You can even take my life, not just my psychic energy."
He glanced at Baal's screen. "But I'm young with good stamina. I recover fast. Some old men here might go limp after a few pulls."
Baal ignored Tinia and kept his eyes on Jiang Lijin. "Don't listen to that little brat's bullshit. My psychic energy's been building up uncomfortably lately. Just take it and help me relieve the pressure. Do you need me to come over?"
Chiron didn't join their bickering. He looked at Jiang Lijin instead. "I can't leave the home planet right now. Su Han just suppressed the nobles' counterattack. If I leave, the situation will spiral out of control. Is there a way to do this remotely?"
Jiang Lijin looked at Xiao Yi.
Several blueprint images popped up on Xiao Yi's screen.
"There is, there is! Your head butler here just dug through the mainframe's underlying database. As long as we set up quantum psychic anchor points at your locations and link them with Boss's Purification Domain, we can achieve cross-star-domain transmission. I've already sent the plans to your terminals. You can find the materials in Cloudream Group's warehouses—Tinia is covering the bill."
Tinia made an okay gesture. "No problem. Clear out Cloudream's warehouses if you need to."
Seth stood to the side, utterly stunned.
This was psychic energy extraction we were talking about. These guys agreed faster than if someone had offered them a free meal.
He turned to ask Tianyan and Tianque: "Are they... always this easygoing?"
Tianyan grinned. "Uncle Seth, you don't understand. This is what we call competitive display of male worth. If anyone hesitates even half a second, they'll never be able to hold their head up in front of the Boss again."
Tianque, arms crossed around his blade, added: "They do it willingly."
Jiang Lijin watched the three men busy preparing materials on her screens, feeling a little more at ease.
"Chiron," Jiang Lijin called out.
Chiron paused what he was doing to look at her. "What is it?"
Jiang Lijin stood up, walked to the edge of the screen, and stepped aside.
Seth appeared in the camera frame. He was wearing shabby clothes covered in nutrient fluid, his hair streaked with white. His gray eyes looked very much like the ones on the screen.
Chiron froze. The electronic pen slipped from his hand and landed noisily on the desk.
"Father."
Seth's eyes reddened as he stepped forward. He reached out to touch the screen, but his hand only passed through empty light.
"You've grown up... Chiron, you've grown up."
The father and son looked at each other through the holographic screen.
Tinia and Baal didn't interfere. They quietly closed their communications.
"You're still alive. Thank goodness," Chiron said, his voice slightly hoarse. He looked at Jiang Lijin. "Lijin, thank you."
"We're family. No need for that," Jiang Lijin waved dismissively. "We'll catch up properly after the Source Core issue is resolved. Xiao Yi, send them the anchor-point setup steps. We don't have much time."
"Copy that."
Chiron's communication also terminated. The screens vanished, and the underground restricted zone went dark again.
Seth wiped his face, then turned to look at Jiang Lijin. This time, his gaze had changed, carrying a newfound respect for the pillar of their group.
"What do we do next, Lijin?" Seth asked.
"Go get some rest. Tianyan, take Uncle Seth to clean himself up," Jiang Lijin instructed. "Tianque, come with me to the outskirts of Guixu. If we're going to build an energy relay station, I need to clear out a big enough area here. Those dead strangler vines are way too much in the way."
Tianque nodded and led the way.
The two of them and Xiao Yi left the restriced zone, following the same path back toward the surface. The elevator began to rise, taking them higher.
When they returned to Guixu's surface layer, the air felt moist.
Jiang Lijin walked to the edge of the town. Ahead of her stretched a vast ruin, with dried strangler vines covering broken walls and collapsed buildings.
"These vines are dead," Tianque said, drawing his short blade, "but their roots go deep. Cutting through them by hand would take a long time."
"Who said anything about cutting them?" Jiang Lijin snapped her fingers.
Xiao Yi rolled forward, his mechanical arms transforming to deploy a flamethrower.
"Boss, step back. Your head butler is about to start cleaning up the trash."
Blue flames shot out, catching on the dry vines and igniting a massive fire. The blaze lit up half the sky, and the sound of burning echoed across Guixu's outskirts.
Jiang Lijin stood in front of the fire, watching the plants turn to ash.
Three days later.
The ruins outside Guixu had been cleared into an open field. A metallic device stood in the middle of that field.
It was a quantum psychic receiver cobbled together by Xiao Yi from scrap parts, based on schematics from the mainframe. It looked like a heap of junk on the outside, but the core components were all genuine.
Over on the home planet, Tinia had spent a small fortune. Within two days, three energy-transmission anchor points had been set up at Cloudream Group's headquarters, the Imperial Palace's underground bunker, and a secret Federal military base.
Attention all units, the psychic channel is about to be established. Xiao Yi paused beside the receiver as a progress bar flickered across the screen.
Jiang Lijin stood at the center of the platform, right on the receiver.
“Ready?” she asked through the headset.
“Anytime, Sister,” Tinia replied.
“Stop stalling,” Baal urged.
“Be careful, Lijin. If it’s too much, stop,” Chiron said.
