The shockwave from the explosion of an entire planet was beyond imagination.
This explosion was the real warning to others. The nearby star pirates, who had been trying to send out interference signals, immediately fell silent. They urgently contacted the Shiyuan clan, questioning what on earth they had done to provoke such a massive retaliation from Fog Star and the Galan Empire.
Warships were too conspicuous, so this time the Shiyuan clan specifically chose to use a spaceship. They had finally managed to avoid the interstellar battlefield and were about to return to their base—who would have thought they’d encounter such an unexpected turn of events?
Spaceships were less stable than warships, and spatial cutting was an extremely demanding task. Even though they had already traveled quite far, the ship was still swaying in the aftermath of the shockwave.
Su Cha remained undisturbed. His spirit form was helping him count down:
[Get ready. The ship is about to re-enter normal space. 70% remaining, 50%…]
While the spirit entity measured the progress, Su Cha lowered his head and slowly curved his lips into a smile.
[20%…]
Su Cha’s smile gradually widened.
He gestured a ‘five’ with his hand, indicating that he could help Ji Tianjin block for five seconds.
Ji Tianjin nodded. Five seconds would be enough for him to seize control. By then, he would immediately destroy part of the ship and depressurize the cabin. With the Shiyuan clan busy handling the emergency, they wouldn’t have time to react.
Just as Su Cha focused intently to prepare for action, Ji Tianjin suddenly leaned in and shook his head, signaling that the plan had changed. At that very moment, the spirit form confirmed that the ship had entered normal space.
Afraid the other hadn’t noticed the cue, Ji Tianjin leaned part of his body over Su Cha. This movement immediately raised the Shiyuan clan’s suspicion, but they quickly had no time to care about that.
Already trembling under the shockwave, the spaceship’s shaking intensified as something jumped onto its top, pounding on the cabin with force.
Spaceships were less conspicuous than warships, but their weakness was also obvious—they were far less sturdy and had much less firepower.
“It’s a strange beast!” A Shiyuan clan member came from the front data room to inform the guards nearby.
Encountering beasts while traveling the universe wasn’t uncommon, but they had already crossed the interstellar battlefield—how could there still be beasts chasing them so relentlessly?
The loud pounding was terrifying, as if the spaceship’s roof could be torn open any second.
“Fire.” The leader calmly gave the order.
Gunfire roared, and flames blazed outside.
The ship rocked in the storm. Ji Tianjin’s voice remained steady: “There are probably many strange beasts nearby. They’ve stirred up an air vortex.”
In this situation, trying to cut through space stably would be very difficult.
Sure enough, the Shiyuan clan didn’t attempt to escape through spatial travel but chose to fight back with brute force.
Since everyone was focused on the beasts outside, no one paid attention to the quiet whispers inside.
Su Cha suddenly asked, “Why do you think the beasts are following us?”
Ji Tianjin simply looked at him without answering.
Su Cha fell silent.
Although he had long suspected it, how exactly did the beasts know he was on this spaceship?
His gaze flickered. He thought of two possibilities: either royal-class beasts could understand human language, and perhaps Fog Star had already begun publicly hunting the Shiyuan clan and what happened on Jibei Star had spread—or the beasts could lock onto the scent of Fog Star people, especially after his deep awakening.
Other contestants seized the chaos to release their spirit forms and attacked the ones holding the keys to their electronic shackles.
But they had underestimated the pilot’s spirit power. Even a contestant with spirit power above 3S couldn’t wrest control from him.
Both sides suffered injuries during the fight. With the ship shaking so violently, firing their guns risked missing and hitting the cabin—no one would get out of that unscathed.
The leader of the Shiyuan clan, who was in charge of this mission, was immensely powerful.
He kicked a teenager to the ground on the spot and was about to kill him as a warning when Su Cha suddenly shouted, “Wait!” He smiled awkwardly and said, “Everyone has learned their lesson by now. If you kill someone here, the smell of blood will surely spread, and that’ll only attract more beasts.”
Telling him how to do his job?
The leader twirled a dagger in his hand and walked over.
Su Cha quickly said, “Please don’t hurt me. I am the perfect model of a hostage.”
A Shiyuan clan member whispered, “When we were fighting just now, he was the only one sitting quietly in place, not moving at all—like a chicken.”
“……”
Ji Tianjin had briefly used his spirit form to attack the person who insulted Su Cha earlier, but that was about it. He hadn’t tried to seize control. If their guess was right and the beasts were after Su Cha, it was actually safer to keep the Shiyuan clan between them for now.
The leader asked coldly, “Why didn’t you fight back?”
The scene just now made him want to kill, but under normal circumstances, a hostage would definitely have tried to resist.
Su Cha: “Because I’m an orphan.”
He had the perfect look of someone with no background, afraid of being killed at any moment.
The leader still felt something was wrong and specifically ordered someone to pull the surveillance footage. They replayed the chaotic scene at 0.5x speed, and Su Cha really hadn’t moved—he even tried to persuade the others to calm down.
In fact, at that time, Su Cha knew no one would listen, so he deliberately said a couple of lines casually. But in the eyes of the Shiyuan clan, it was completely different—their first reaction was: Does this guy have a screw loose?
When the leader’s suspicion became even more obvious, Ji Tianjin voluntarily told a story.
“He was once framed by someone, and in the end, he even wrote a letter of forgiveness for them. That’s just his nature.”
Su Cha looked sincere: “Have you ever heard of the theory of loving your enemies?”
He actively released his spirit form, and under the radiance of lotus and magnolia flowers, he gently began to speak about ‘spreading love throughout the world.’
Everyone present looked like they had just swallowed a fly.
Yep, confirmed. He’s crazy.
The Shiyuan clan stopped paying him any attention and focused on trying to evade the attacking beasts.
The pilot’s brow remained tightly furrowed, unable to understand why the beasts wouldn’t stop chasing them.
“There are no other ships nearby.”
Which meant it would be very hard to divert the trouble elsewhere.
“See if you can find a more concealed desolate star,” the leader ordered, planning for a temporary stop.
“And contact the base. Ask why the backup star pirates haven’t arrived yet.”
The message had been sent out long ago, but there was still no response.
It was a full ten minutes later when a signal finally connected to their secure communicator: “The plan has gone wrong.” The people at the base suddenly asked, “Did you capture someone from Fog Star?”
The Shiyuan clan liked to establish their bases on backward planets precisely because powerful factions would be suppressed when entering low-dimensional spaces. But this time, they had clearly stepped right into a trap. Fog Star’s warships were already heading to several of their strongholds. Following Cyril’s instructions, they were going to penetrate as many as they could.
Cyril had spent an enormous fortune to do this, with no intention of interstellar colonization—he had only one goal: to completely annihilate all Shiyuan clan bases.
This kind of large-scale siege was something the Shiyuan clan couldn’t withstand.
The Shiyuan clan had vaguely heard about Fog Star’s massacre of a planet ruled by a royal-class beast, but they had mistakenly categorized Fog Star as a typical federal-type empire.
As more updated reports came in from their bases, they finally pieced together the full story. The leader stormed up to Su Cha and roared, “Didn’t you say you were an orphan?!”
There were only one person from Galan Empire and one from Fog Star on this ship. There was no second possible suspect.
Su Cha: “I swear, I really am.”
The leader didn’t listen to his excuses. He paced back and forth, and then suddenly figured it all out—the reason the beasts were attacking relentlessly. There was a deep-seated enmity between the beasts and Fog Star. Judging by the situation now, this d*mned kid must have a highly significant status in Fog Star, which was why the beasts were so determined to kill him.
The royal-class beasts were still frantically attacking the ship. They could sense the flesh and blood of a Fog Star person—the intensity of the scent was something only a high-ranking royal possessed.
“Maybe we should just kill him,” someone suggested.
Of course, the leader wanted to do exactly that. But Fog Star had already blown up a planet for him—if they killed him now, they’d probably face a bloodbath akin to the Zerg’s revenge. What’s more, when his blood spilled, the beasts outside would probably go completely berserk.
The ship rocked more and more violently. The leader was torn between choices but suddenly made a firm decision. He directly unlocked Su Cha’s electronic shackles and returned all his confiscated belongings.
“You can go.”
“No.” Su Cha looked at him with wounded, deer-like eyes. “Don’t chase me away!”
The Shiyuan clan didn’t listen to him at all and forcefully dragged him toward the escape pod.
“I’m not going! I won’t go! I live and die with this ship!”
“Didn’t you say you wanted cake earlier?” Another Shiyuan clan member shoved a cake into the escape pod: “Here, it’s even a three-layer one. Now get going.”
“No—” Su Cha’s low roar sounded as if his entire clan had just been wiped out.
True to his nature, his lotus magnolia spirit leaves clung tightly to the leader’s leg, refusing to let go.
The other contestants’ heads kept turning left and right, watching the chaos unfold, not daring to step in.
Unlike Su Cha’s dramatic struggle, Ji Tianjin sighed, walked up to the Shiyuan clan members, and calmly extended his arm: “Unlock me too. Galan Empire and Fog Star are allies. The beasts won’t stop otherwise.”
Yes, the one who blew up the planet was also the Emperor of Galan Empire. The Shiyuan clan unshackled him as well.
Su Cha clung desperately to the doorframe: “As kidnappers, how can you abandon your hostage? You’re all going to die miserable deaths!!”
The Shiyuan clan gave him a hard shove, completely sealing the escape pod. With the beasts swarming outside, they quickly sliced open a space crack and prepared to launch the escape pod before fully transitioning into normal space.
“Let me back in!” A hoarse voice shouted from inside the pod.
The Shiyuan clan pressed the button to open the hatch: “Off you go!”
The escape pod was forcibly ejected away from the ship, and along with it, Su Cha’s cursing voice gradually disappeared into the distance.
Can’t wait until next week to see more? Want to show your support? Come to my Patreon where you can get up to 5 more chapters of The Cutest in the Galaxy right away ! Or go donate at Paypal or Ko-fi to show your appreciation! :)
