Chapter 36: Enemy Planet (Part 1)
On the aircraft heading toward Iskan’s District One, Lin Chuan collapsed tiredly into a recliner, rubbing his faintly aching temples.
A cup of ice water suddenly pressed against his cheek. When he opened his eyes, Qin Hua was holding a bottle of chilled cola he had scavenged from the aircraft in front of him.
“Here. An ancient Earth specialty drink. My family produces it ourselves based on old books.”
Seeing Qin Hua’s complete lack of attachment to the empire, Lin Chuan found it strange.
“You just ran out like this, and the Qin family actually agreed?”
“Of course.”
Qin Hua said proudly, “I’m different from you now. I’m someone with a family.”
“Oh?”
Lin Chuan looked at his carefree expression, then turned toward Xi Lian, who was sitting in the pilot’s seat. The man’s distinct, slender hands were continuously stroking a Siberian wolf mental body.
“Love-brained…”
Lin Chuan curled his lips. Thinking that he was about to be placed on the empire’s wanted list, he could not help growing irritated.
“You wanted to fall in love, but you dragged me into this too. Qin Hua, are you even human?”
“It wasn’t me who wanted to drag you along. They said they needed to bring back a guide.”
Qin Hua cast a pleading look at the two beastmen on the aircraft.
Then Edwin, who had transformed into beast form and was lying on the floor to cool off, slowly got up, walked in front of Lin Chuan, and explained, “brother-in-law needed us to bring back a human guide. Otherwise, we wouldn’t care about you humans at all.”
“brother-in-law? You mean Jin Chi’an?”
“Mm.”
After receiving his confirmation, Lin Chuan clenched his fists and angrily slammed the armrest beside him.
“It’s Jin Chi’an again. Sure enough, nothing good ever happens when he’s involved.”
“Don’t say that. We came looking for you because we believe in your abilities. You’re one of the top guides at Loivette Academy, second only to Chi’an.”
Qin Hua’s praise did not make him feel any better. Instead, Lin Chuan looked at Qin Hua’s husky-like dumb expression with some contempt. In the end, he helplessly waved his hand.
“Enough. Let me rest for a while.”
…
By the time their aircraft arrived at Iskan’s District One, three days had already passed.
After establishing communication with Iskan, the aircraft they were piloting docked without obstruction on the lawn of the Iskan palace.
Lin Chuan had just stepped off the aircraft when several soft, milky little balls of fur blocked his path.
Several tiny kittens were fighting over a ball of yarn tied into a sphere.
Lin Chuan tried to walk around them in disgust, only to see Jin Chi’an hurry over, scoop all the little kittens into his arms, and carefully smooth their fur.
The moment their eyes met, Jin Chi’an froze for a short while. A moment later, he reacted.
“Lin Chuan? Why is it you?”
“Instead of asking me that, you might as well ask him.”
Following the direction of Lin Chuan’s gaze, Jin Chi’an saw Xi Lian stepping down from the aircraft. In his right arm, he held an extremely familiar Siberian wolf, while someone had linked arms with his left arm.
Looking carefully, the person standing on Xi Lian’s left was none other than Qin Hua.
“Why are all of you here?”
“Isn’t it because you said you needed to catch a guide? Then Qin Hua followed the two of them and caught me.”
Lin Chuan looked unhappily at the kittens in Jin Chi’an’s arms and said with some disdain, “Why are you still raising these things? Who was it who said before that having Puff alone was enough?”
As soon as Lin Chuan finished speaking, he froze instinctively. Then he extended his mental tendrils and sensed the aura of Jin Chi’an’s mental body.
Only after searching his entire body and failing to find the Maine Coon that always made him itch with anger did he ask, “Where’s Puff?”
Lin Chuan frowned and looked suspiciously at Jin Chi’an’s bitter smile. He asked again, “Jin Chi’an, where is your mental body? And your consciousness cloud—what’s going on…”
“That’s why I asked you to come.”
After a round of explanation, Lin Chuan, who learned that Jin Chi’an had injected three enhancers, widened his eyes and cursed in disbelief, “Are you insane, Jin Chi’an? If the amount of enhancers injected within twenty-four hours exceeds three doses, you’ll die. Do you know that?”
“I know. I had a sense of proportion. As long as I received treatment in time…”
“You had a damn sense of proportion. Someone as undisciplined as you should never have been allowed into the Allied Forces in the first place.”
Listening to Lin Chuan’s angry scolding, Jin Chi’an smiled gently.
“Thank you for worrying about me, Lin Chuan.”
“Who… who the hell is worried about you?”
Lin Chuan turned his head aside in irritation and came face-to-face with the Iskan emperor walking toward them.
Aphrodite was pushing a wheelchair, bringing the weak Bai Ye into the sunlight. Then he walked toward the group and said, “Hello, human guide.”
Facing Aphrodite’s outstretched hand, Lin Chuan awkwardly shook it and nodded at him.
Immediately afterward, Aphrodite patted Jin Chi’an’s shoulder and reminded him, “Now that he’s here, take him over.”
“Mm, all right.”
Jin Chi’an gave Lin Chuan a look, signaling for him to follow.
Before long, the two arrived inside the laboratory where Talir’s instrument had been placed.
“What is this?”
Lin Chuan looked at the huge object before him and asked Jin Chi’an in confusion.
“Based on my investigation, this is a mental-linking instrument. Sentinels, guides, or beastmen who haven’t bonded can use this instrument to achieve a mental connection.”
“So?”
Lin Chuan raised an eyebrow at him.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Felix is missing, and I can’t control my mental power.”
Jin Chi’an looked firmly at Lin Chuan.
“I need you to help me activate the instrument and locate Felix through the connection.”
Lin Chuan extended his mental tendrils and sensed the instrument he had never seen before. Somewhat uncertainly, he said, “No matter how I look at it, this instrument is a half-finished product that hasn’t gone through clinical testing. How can you guarantee a one-hundred-percent success rate for this experiment?”
“Don’t worry. This instrument won’t have any effect on the operator.”
“Damn it, I’m asking about you. If the experiment fails, what happens to you?”
“Nothing. I just need to find Felix.”
“Tch. Lunatic.”
Lin Chuan complained aloud, but his body honestly began controlling the instrument in front of him.
As his mental tendrils moved into place on the corresponding operating systems one by one, the instrument’s functions were also transmitted into Lin Chuan’s consciousness cloud.
A simulated scene appeared in his mind one after another. When one tube of mental-power extract after another was inserted into the instrument’s slots, the person on the instrument could form a mental connection with it.
Lin Chuan analyzed the general function bit by bit. When he gradually withdrew his mental tendrils, he saw Jin Chi’an’s questioning gaze.
“Can it work?”
“It can, but it may require mental-power extracts from you and Felix.”
“Felix’s mental-power extract?”
Jin Chi’an rubbed his index finger with some difficulty, until a voice dispelled his concerns.
Charles led several people into the laboratory and smiled as he said, “You don’t have to worry about that. During our earlier search for Felix, we found the nursery director. He has a sample of Felix’s mental-power extract.”
“The director?”
“Long time no see, intern.”
Looking behind Charles, the nursery director slowly walked into the room with a somewhat shy young woman following behind him.
The young woman, who had originally had her head lowered, instantly brightened when she saw Jin Chi’an. She transformed into a tabby cat beast form and threw herself into Jin Chi’an’s arms.
“Brother Chi’an!”
Looking at the familiar tabby cat in his arms, Jin Chi’an smiled and rubbed her head. Extremely skillfully, he scratched under her chin.
“Little Jiutong has grown so big.”
“Meow~”
Lin Chuan looked at Jin Chi’an in contempt as he enjoyed the beastman in his arms acting cute. He immediately began to doubt Jin Chi’an’s earlier deep devotion to finding Felix.
Somewhat speechless, he turned to the director, who had been left to one side, and asked, “You said you can provide Felix’s mental-power extract?”
Hearing this, the director took the original fluid from the case in his hand, reminiscing internally about the days Felix had lived in the nursery.
“Liu Tiao’s frenzy periods were unstable in the past, so I could only extract his mental power and have a specialized institution identify the cause of his abnormal frenzy periods.”
“Then what did the final test say the cause was?”
Lin Chuan asked with some curiosity.
The director shrugged and sighed helplessly.
“It was simply that tiger beastmen have relatively bad tempers and are prone to frenzy periods caused by emotional instability. But after Chi’an arrived, abnormal frenzy periods rarely happened to him anymore.”
“So your role was basically that of a sedative.”
Lin Chuan raised an eyebrow at Jin Chi’an. Thinking back to the internship assignment at the time, he said disdainfully, “You really got lucky. Even an internship assignment gave you such an easy placement.”
Ignoring Lin Chuan’s teasing, Jin Chi’an put down the tabby cat in his arms and reached out to take the original fluid from the director.
“Since we have the extract, let’s start directly.”
“Now?”
Lin Chuan took the extract from him with some difficulty and tried to persuade him again.
“The instrument is still temporarily unstable…”
“Start.”
Meeting Jin Chi’an’s firm gaze, Lin Chuan could only resign himself to it. He inserted the extract into the instrument and gave Jin Chi’an a look.
“Lie down.”
After clearing everyone else out of the laboratory, Jin Chi’an lay down on the experimental platform inside the instrument. His head was instantly enveloped in a powerful mental force.
As Lin Chuan’s mental tendrils probed deeper, the long-lost connection to his consciousness cloud gradually became perceptible.
When he opened his eyes again, his field of vision had become low. The surrounding vegetation blocked his path.
Jin Chi’an suspiciously took one small step forward, and a fluffy forepaw appeared in his field of vision.
In disbelief, he ran to a nearby pool and lowered his head to look at his reflection in the water.
A cream-colored Maine Coon appeared in the reflection.
“Puff?”
Jin Chi’an’s voice turned into a kitten’s cry in his ears, forcing him to accept the fact that he had become his mental body.
“Meow, meow…”
Several of Puff’s cries echoed through the forest. Before he could completely come back to himself, the sound of dead branches being stepped on and snapping reached his ears first.
When he turned to look, a wild brown bear was baring its teeth at him.
