He Dong's personal terminal suddenly rang. It was a message from one of his subordinates.
They had found two unconscious prison guards near the port used for prison resource transport.
They couldn't wake the two guards, and even after taking them to the hospital, it was discovered that their brainwaves had almost flatlined. They were essentially brain-dead—the clear aftereffects of a Psychic Pulse.
The last assignment these two guards had was to inspect a medical waste transport ship departing from the port.
He Dong gritted his teeth and muttered to himself, "The medical waste transport route..."
「A few minutes later.」
He Dong returned to the Conference Room.
On his way back, he had already figured out Xiang Yi's next move.
After all, the surveillance on the outer levels had been mostly unaffected by the Blood Crystal Spiritual Energy fluctuations. But with everyone dispatched to deal with the situations on the lower and middle levels, no one was paying attention to the upper level, allowing Xiang Yi to easily board a departing ship.
By now, the warden had already used his personal connections to contact the transit hub space station and pull their surveillance footage.
The footage clearly captured the entire process of Xiang Yi boarding the mechanical scrap transport ship.
If that ship were still in port, Xiang Yi would have had no chance of escape. But now, it had already departed and was on its way to its destination.
This had become their biggest problem.
The chaos within the prison was nothing compared to the headache of dealing with the pressure from Chairman Liu.
The moment He Dong entered the Conference Room, he asked, "What's that ship's destination? Is it traveling through hyperspace or going FTL?"
The warden immediately replied, "The neighboring Flowing Dust Star System, so it's taking an FTL route. By now, the ship should have already entered the route and is likely about halfway there."
The secretary beside him added, "The Flowing Dust Star System is home to the largest electronic and mechanical waste recycling center in this Core Star System Group."
"But given this ship's cargo capacity, it probably won't go to the main recycling center. It will most likely be randomly assigned to one of the smaller colonies. It all depends on where they end up sending it."
With a clear grasp of the situation, He Dong asked, "So what's our move?"
The warden already knew what to do. "First, we suppress the news of Xiang Yi's escape. Get the surveillance footage from the transit hub deleted, leaving only our backup."
"Then, I'll pull some strings, arrange a pursuit team, and see if we can intercept him before that ship lands. We have to get him back."
"And remember, he's a Spiritual Ability User. If it comes to it, killing him on the spot is also an option." He Dong didn't dare push for anything more this time, merely finishing the warden's thought and sealing the decision.
The warden nodded slightly and tapped the conference table, indicating the people in the room. "We also need to figure out a way to forge evidence for our superiors."
"Some of you here might not know this, but Xiang Yi was someone the higher-ups ordered us to kill. Now that he's escaped, Chairman Liu will be furious."
The moment the name "Chairman Liu" was spoken, the atmosphere in the Conference Room turned frigid. Anyone who recognized the name could imagine what fate awaited them if Chairman Liu discovered that Xiang Yi—the man he had personally marked for death—was still alive.
"You all understand the consequences, so we absolutely cannot let our superiors know we let the man escape."
"A lot of people died in this incident. It's the perfect opportunity to cover our tracks."
"He Dong, you handle the cover-up. I'll take over the matter of Xiang Yi."
"I'll see to it." He Dong immediately rose to his feet, acknowledged the warden's command, and hurried out of the Conference Room.
「Meanwhile.」
「Flowing Dust Star System.」
「The cockpit of the freight ship.」
Two pilots were staring at the ship's main console, their expressions puzzled.
One of the pilots pointed to five blips on the ship's radar. "That's weird. Those are definitely local patrol ships, so why aren't they using the patrol's high-clearance identification codes? And they're sending a communication request asking us to stop for inspection. Shouldn't they just be able to issue a direct order?"
"Is this really proper procedure?"
"What should we do? Should we stop?"
The other pilot glanced out the viewport. A planet already filled more than half the view, and the "patrol ships" were closing in from their flank. They were quickly transforming from pinpricks of light into vessels with clearly discernible details. He thought for a moment and said, "Let's stop."
He pointed to the distance-to-destination display on the main console. "We're almost there anyway. If they want to inspect us, let them. We can ask later if this is standard procedure."
"If there really is a procedural issue, we might even get some compensation out of it. A few days off, maybe."
"Good point. I'll disengage the autopilot."
"You'd better not do that."
The pilot finished speaking and was about to touch the main controls, but a sudden voice from behind stopped him.
Xiang Yi had just woken from his rest, and as he approached the cockpit, he overheard the two pilots' conversation.
Clearly, the behavior of this new "patrol" didn't align with what the pilots considered normal procedure.
Considering their demand to stop for inspection, and factoring in his own estimate of how long it would take the prison to figure out his escape route, the answer was obvious.
'These are the people sent from the prison.'
Of course, Xiang Yi couldn't be one hundred percent certain, but either way, he absolutely could not allow anyone to board this ship for an inspection.
He was on a spaceship in the middle of deep space; he had even less room to maneuver than he did in prison. 'If they find me here, I might as well just let them arrest me.'
'I have to stop the pilots.'
The coil rotor on the Mining Gun in Xiang Yi's hand began to spin, ready to fire at any moment.
Seeing this, the two pilots immediately threw their hands in the air.
One of them suddenly had a flash of recognition and said to Xiang Yi, "I remember you! You're that guy from the space station in the other Star System. How did you get on board?"
"That's not important."
"What's important is that you ignore those ships, accelerate, and stick to your original flight path to the planet ahead."
"As long as you get us down there safely, I won't hurt you. You can just tell them you were hijacked to avoid getting in trouble. You said they're a patrol, right? They're not unreasonable people, are they?"
"But if you refuse to cooperate... well, you know what the consequences will be."
One of the pilots glanced at the ships drawing ever closer from their flank and said decisively, "No problem. As long as you don't hurt us, we'll do whatever you want."
Xiang Yi glanced at the man's name tag. The pilot's name was Xiao Zhibin; the other was Qi Chen.
Xiao Zhibin turned back to the console and keyed in a few commands. The ship's engine output immediately surged, leaving the approaching ships behind as it accelerated forward.
The ship soon entered the planet's dark side—the hemisphere currently experiencing night.
Through the viewport, Xiang Yi noticed that the planet below wasn't like the pictures of Earth he had seen, where every region of human activity glittered with countless lights.
Instead, only a single patch near the planet's equator glowed in the darkness.
The ship was heading toward that location.
Xiang Yi was very satisfied with the pilots' cooperation.
But then, Xiao Zhibin suddenly cried out, "Why do we have a weapon lock on us?!"