1TL: Part 1For a whole month after that, Xu Yin stayed with Lu Yuan and the others.
When they started working, they went to the mines; after work, they secretly sneaked off to the scrapyard.
After Xu Yin helped them break through a layer of potential, the entire escape plan progressed significantly. Not only did the speed of mecha manufacturing increase, but now everyone was no longer worried about who would pilot the mechas during the escape. With their current mental powers, they could all pilot them.
Xu Yin observed the mecha manufacturer’s work for several days and, after getting the design blueprints, spent some time contemplating. One day, he went to the scrapyard, rummaged around for a while, and brought back a pile of parts. Taking up a spot, he began assembling the mecha on his own.
Seeing this, Lu Yuan and the others ran over to watch—
“Damn, Xu Yin, you can make a mecha too?”
“Didn’t you study humanities in military school?”
Xu Yin was just giving it a try.
After studying the mecha design blueprints, he seemed to have an inkling of understanding.
—He felt that building the old-style mechas was similar to constructing the energy meridians of an illusionist from the previous world.
The mecha manufacturers used their mental power to sense and design the best connection pathways in order to activate every part of the mecha.
When Xu Yin brought this up with the mecha manufacturer, the latter nodded and praised him, saying, “That’s correct. Building old-style mechas is less about constructing machines and more about building human-like blood vessels. That’s why some of the old-style mecha designs in the star system are categorized as art exhibitions.”
He was then surprised, “But Xu Yin, you really learn quickly. Many mecha manufacturing students take two to three years to grasp this concept.”
This must be the advantage of someone with experience from several worlds.
Xu Yin smiled.
With Xu Yin’s powerful mental strength, once he focused on a task, he was highly concentrated and efficient. The others worked enthusiastically as well. After a month, they had successfully obtained four old-style mechas, including the one Xu Yin had made.
On that day.
While working in the mines, Lu Yuan and Yan Shu seemed distracted, their excitement and nervousness barely contained.
Xu Yin, however, remained calm. He was actually carefully considering the entire plan of Lu Yuan and the others, feeling that so far everything had been going a little too smoothly.
Would they really be able to leave tonight without any issues?
After finishing work, they quickly left the mines, running toward the scrapyard and entering the underground secret base.
The other three had been waiting there for a while. As soon as they saw the others arrive, their eyes lit up.
“It’s tonight, right?”
“Yeah, after we bring Xu Yin and the others’ elders over, we’ll leave!”
With that, everyone exchanged a glance, took a deep breath, and felt a little nervous.
Lu Yuan joked, “After we escape, we’ll definitely never be able to return to the main star system. We’ll probably have to spend the rest of our lives in the wastelands.”
The wastelands referred to star systems not controlled by Xing guo. These places weren’t completely uninhabited, though—there were still plenty of underground merchants, pirates, and wanderers.
“It’s fine. Living there is still better than staying here.”
“Yeah, we’ll become wanderers ourselves.”
“Then should we give our little team a name, like a ‘righteous’ group in the ‘underworld’? What should we call it?”
Lu Yuan’s eyes lit up as he suggested, “Let’s call it ‘The Xingyun Council, a bunch of big idiots.’”
Everyone paused for a moment, then burst into laughter. “Hahaha! Yeah, let’s call it ‘The Xingyun Council, a bunch of big idiots!’”
Xu Yin, listening to them, couldn’t help but smile as well.
However, after the laughter died down, everyone’s expressions became a little more serious.
The Xingyun Council was the root cause of everything that had brought them here.
Without the Xingyun Council, neither they nor their families would have ended up in such a situation.
After they left this place… could they really take revenge?
For a moment, no one spoke, and everyone’s eyes gleamed with determination.
Suddenly, Xu Yin tilted his head.
The next second, his expression turned cold, and he furrowed his brow, shouting, “Get down!”
Before anyone could react, they heard a loud “boom” above their heads. Lu Yuan and the others quickly followed Xu Yin’s lead, crouching down and clutching their heads. The entire underground base trembled violently!
…The underground base had been blown open!
Cement chunks and debris fell, and the six of them rolled to the side. After a brief moment of stunned silence, they looked up in shock.
The ceiling of the base had been blown open, revealing a large hole. Next to the hole, a demolition robot stood, surrounded by a team of soldiers. In front of the soldiers were two people—
One was the planetary official of this planet, Yue Ming, a middle-aged man with a thin, sharp face and a wiry body.
The other was a chubby man, grinning broadly, looking extremely smug.
Lu Yuan’s eyes widened, his fists clenched. He stood up and, through gritted teeth, shouted, “—Hong Li!”
Upon seeing the chubby man, the girl next to Yan Shu turned pale, as if remembering something. Her hands and feet went cold as she whispered, “Sorry, he might have been following me…”
Yan Shu, with a stern face, pressed his hand onto her shoulder, signalling that now was not the time to assign blame.
Hong Li was a cunning, despicable man, and they had certainly let their guard down.
—Hong Li was also a convict who had been exiled here, but unlike Lu Yuan, Xu Yin, and the others, he was a murderer. He had been to prison twice by a young age, and on his third offense, he was finally sent to this desolate place.
Even here, however, he managed to thrive—because he was particularly adept at currying favor with Yue Ming.
Lu Yuan and the others had always looked down on such scum. Hong Li worked at a different mine, so they had no direct dealings with him. But Hong Li, ever persistent in his vile ways, had followed the girl next to Yan Shu one day with the intent of assaulting her, only to be caught by Lu Yuan and beaten to the ground.
Since then, Hong Li had been avoiding them like the plague. Lu Yuan never expected that, just as their escape plan was about to reach its final step, they would fall into Hong Li’s trap!
At this moment, Lu Yuan wanted nothing more than to tear this trash apart with his bare hands!
Could Hong Li not see their expressions?
He saw them, and that only made him grin wider. Turning to Yue Ming, he said, “Captain Yue, see? I told you, didn’t I? Heh, they must have been up to no good in a place like this!”
Yue Ming stood with his hands behind his back, sneering, “Impressive, you actually managed to find this place to set up a secret base? Oh, and four mechas? You kids don’t really think that just by throwing something together, you can actually create a real mecha, do you?”
His gaze swept over Xu Yin, briefly flickering.
“Xu Yin, you wouldn’t be the mastermind behind this, would you?” He asked with a sly smile.
“I’m the mastermind. If you’ve got a problem, come at me,” Lu Yuan said coldly. “You, a dog of the Xingyun Council, barking non-stop before your master even lifts a finger—really know how to pander.”
Who among them didn’t know that the Xingyun Council had considered General Xu as a thorn in their side?
Now that General Xu had been removed, Xu Yin’s mother had gone insane, and the Xingyun Society had succeeded in their plans. They had abandoned Xu Yin, the so-called “waste” in everyone’s eyes, to his fate.
Yet Yue Ming still insisted on targeting Xu Yin. Who was he trying to impress?
Lu Yuan’s words were harsh, and sure enough, Yue Ming’s expression changed. His face twisted with veins bulging as he sneered, “Oh? So you’re the mastermind? Lu Yuan, do you even know what the penalty is for planning an escape as a convict? You really aren’t afraid of dying, are you?”
He raised his chin, signaling to the soldiers to move in and capture them.
The soldiers all shouted, “Yes, sir!” But as they stepped forward, they hesitated and got tangled up!
The vertical ladder leading to the underground base had been destroyed in their explosion, so the soldiers couldn’t get down!
“Uh, Captain Yue, we’ll go get the tools…” one of the soldiers said awkwardly before running off.
Yue Ming almost stumbled in place, shouting, “Didn’t you bring the tools when you came?!”
—No one had expected that they would accidentally destroy the only vertical ladder, and it didn’t help that Yue Ming himself hadn’t thought of it either.
The soldiers muttered under their breath.
Xu Yin had been silent, pondering the situation, when he suddenly smiled.
At the sight of his smile, Yue Ming’s face darkened even more. “What are you laughing at?”
“It’ll take the soldiers at least twenty minutes to go back and forth, right?” Xu Yin said with a faint smile.
Xu Yin had already predicted that things wouldn’t go smoothly, but now that they had reached this point, he felt a bit more at ease. The unexpected complication didn’t seem as hard to resolve.
The other five all turned their gaze toward Xu Yin.
Upon hearing Xu Yin’s words, Yue Ming’s gut twisted with a bad feeling. “What are you planning?”
“Aren’t you curious if we can really make mechas?” Xu Yin raised an eyebrow, smiling playfully.
Yue Ming’s bad premonition only grew stronger.
Meanwhile, Lu Yuan and the others understood Xu Yin’s meaning. Their expressions relaxed, and they all started smiling.
Their smiles made Yue Ming’s unease grow deeper. He barked angrily, “What exactly are you planning?! I’m telling you, you better surrender. Struggling won’t lead to anything good!”
Xu Yin turned to Lu Yuan and the others. “Get in the mechas, crush them.”
Lu Yuan asked, “Really crush them?”
“If they block one, take down one. If they block a group, take down a group,” Xu Yin smiled. “It’ll take a little time, but it’s not impossible.”
If the base had been infiltrated and the mechas destroyed, things could’ve been much worse.
But with the mechas still intact, what was there to worry about leaving this place?
The exiled planet might have a military, but the army here was very lax, and mobilizing them would take some time.
That time was more than enough.
Xu Yin’s smile deepened. “We should thank Captain Yue.”
Lu Yuan understood, and chuckled along with him. “Yeah, we should thank Captain Yue.”
When they first discovered their secret base, they could have quietly infiltrated and taken their mechas, but instead, they blew open the ceiling and then stood above, shouting at them.
This was perfect—it gave them time to adjust their plan after the unexpected turn of events.
When Yue Ming heard their words, he realized what had happened and immediately looked like he’d eaten something foul—his face twisted in frustration. He had shot himself in the foot!
The six of them exchanged a glance before scrambling to their feet and rushing toward the four mechas.
Yue Ming, realizing the situation had gone awry, immediately shouted, “Shoot! Hurry up and shoot! Don’t let them get into the mechas!”
The soldiers he left behind hurriedly drew their guns. But if anyone thought the soldiers were competent, they were wrong. These soldiers were so out of practice that their shots went wild—bullets ricocheted off the ground, walls, or the solid mecha armor, never even coming close to Xu Yin and the others.
Yue Ming was nearly livid with rage. He snatched a gun for himself, and his shooting skills were far better than the soldiers’. However, his first shot struck one of the mechas’ specialized material areas, causing the bullet to ricochet back at him. With a sharp “whizz,” it shot straight through his calf. Yue Ming howled in pain and collapsed to the ground.
Hong Li and a few soldiers rushed to his side in a panic, shouting, “Captain Yue!”
Meanwhile, Xu Yin and the other five had already entered their mechas.
It wasn’t Xu Yin’s first time entering his mecha’s cockpit—over the past month, he had been in that small space several times.
But this was the first time he fully connected his mental power to the mecha, initiating it for real.
The old-fashioned mechas were incredibly crude in appearance. Since they were pieced together from parts scavenged from the scrapyard, their exterior was a patchwork of silver, black, and yellow, making them look almost pitiful.
However, once activated, the air rushed out from the various gaps, and then the mecha took its first step—
With a “clank,” the movement was both delicate and fluid.
—This mecha’s performance was impressive!
The soldiers above quickly realized this, and their hearts sank. They immediately tried to contact the main military force, hoping to get mechas deployed, but to their shock, they couldn’t get through—likely because the main force was busy drinking and playing cards!
In a panic, the soldiers watched in disbelief as all four mechas surged out from the hole, soaring straight into the sky!
Yue Ming’s vision went black, and he screamed, “Shoot them down!! Get them down now!!”
Xu Yin and the others had actually succeeded in building the mechas—this was something Yue Ming had never imagined in his wildest dreams!
And these mechas, despite their old-fashioned appearance, how were these kids able to operate them with such powerful mental energy?!
But regular bullets were useless against the mecha’s exterior. How were these soldiers supposed to bring down four mechas? And they couldn’t even fly to pursue them!
The four mechas rocketed into the night sky, their engines roaring.
Unable to set up a communication platform, Xu Yin couldn’t contact the other five at this moment. However, it was clear that everyone must have understood what to do next. For those who still had family, the priority would be to get them out. For those like Lu Yuan and Yan Shu, who had already lost their families, there was no need to keep drifting aimlessly in the air—it would be a waste of time and too risky.
So, after reaching a certain altitude, the four mechas silently divided into two groups—two continued to rise, aiming to break through the planet’s atmosphere, while the other two veered off in opposite east and west directions!
But just as they were executing their plan, another unexpected turn of events occurred!
With a deafening thunderous roar, the night sky suddenly tore open!
Everyone was startled by the shock of this abrupt change!
Xu Yin, like the other three mechas, immediately halted, looking up in astonishment.
Then, they watched in shock as the tear in the sky rapidly widened, forming an irregular passageway.
And from inside, a massive object began to fall down!
Xu Yin’s pupils constricted sharply.
It was a spatial tunnel!
