141 Ambush (Seeking Monthly Votes)

"Eldest Miss..." The deputy captain paused after uttering those three words.

The captain's attention was instantly hooked by this brief address. He lifted his gaze from the documents in front of him and demanded, "What on earth is going on with the Eldest Miss? You—"

Before he could finish his sentence, the captain felt a sudden numbness wash over his back. His limbs were already tightly bound by an unknown object.

Possessing lightning-fast reactions, he let out a loud roar, trying to unleash his inner psychic energy to instantly shatter whatever was restraining him. However, just as the energy surged close to the surface of his skin, it was abruptly blocked by an invisible wall. The massive recoil of energy surged back into his body, violently rattling his internal organs. With a muffled cough, he vomited a mouthful of dark blood.

Terror gripped his heart. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Before he could even begin to figure out what was happening, an overwhelming wave of dizziness swept over him, and he lost consciousness entirely.

The moment he hurled the black metal rod, the deputy captain had retreated swiftly to the doorway, looking entirely ready to flee the scene at a moment's notice. The captain's strength was unfathomable, and the deputy captain had no way of knowing whether the black metal rod would genuinely subdue him.

When he saw the captain spit a mouthful of blood and go completely limp, and then noticed his entire body tightly bound by countless thread-like black filaments, with only his face exposed, the deputy captain finally let out a sigh of relief.

He cast a somewhat fearful glance at those black threads. These unassuming strands were powerful enough to immobilize a tier-ten powerhouse capable of fighting mechas on equal footing; they were truly terrifying.

This was no time for sentimentality. Pulling himself together, the deputy captain cautiously drew a small silver box from his inner pocket, opened it, and extracted a transparent syringe filled with a pale red, viscous liquid that rippled with eerie patterns.

His expression now was even more cautious than when he had handled the black metal rod, as if he harbored a profound dread of the fluid inside.

He drove the syringe straight into the forehead of the unconscious captain, pushing the pale red liquid deep into his mind.

The captain's complexion, naturally dark yet formerly ruddy, instantly withered, turning into a ghastly, ashen pale.

The deputy captain waited quietly. Five minutes later, he rolled over the captain's body, which was now almost entirely devoid of vitality. On his back, right amid the dense tangle of black threads, was a sunken, finger-width hole.

The deputy captain inserted his index finger and pressed down firmly. The black filaments wriggled like tentacles, retreating backward into the captain's back. The sensation, resembling countless crawling insects writhing beneath his skin, was indescribably sickening.

*Clink.*

Finally, all the black threads retracted completely, reshaping into a single black metal rod that dropped onto the metallic floor with a crisp sound.

The deputy captain picked up the metal rod and carefully stowed it away. He glanced down at the captain, whose body was stiff and rigid, straight as a corpse, and silently whispered in his heart, "I am sorry."

Standing up, his gaze pierced through the metal wall, fixing upon the central building in the distance. "The biggest obstacle is out of the way. Now, no one can ever stop us from being together." His eyes burned with a fervor so intense it seemed capable of melting the very metal walls.

Inside her room, Yu Daoqing was reviewing several documents. Having left Dabo for a decade, she was now cramming to catch up.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang. The frantic rhythm of the chimes betrayed the immense anxiety of the person standing outside. Yu Daoqing raised her head and softly called out, "Open the door."

The door slid open to reveal the deputy captain, his face a mask of panic. Yu Daoqing's heart sank. She knew this deputy captain well; he had been appointed to his position precisely because of his steady and unflappable demeanor under pressure. For him to wear such a flustered expression meant something gravely serious must have occurred.

"What has happened?" Yu Daoqing asked in a deep voice. She owed her current position to far more than just her beauty.

"Eldest Miss..." As if finding his pillar of support, the deputy captain steadied himself slightly. "The captain... for some unknown reason, he has suddenly collapsed. Please come and take a look."

Yu Daoqing rose to her feet, maintaining her composure on the surface. "Lead the way."

The deputy captain escorted her toward the first dormitory building. The two secretaries residing in the adjacent rooms, having received word that the Eldest Miss had gone out, immediately dropped their tasks, hurried out of their rooms, and fell in line behind her.

Hearing the extra set of footsteps behind them, the deputy captain's brow twitched almost imperceptibly, though he gave no outward sign.

Upon entering the captain's quarters, the sight of the captain lying motionless on the floor brought a deep shadow of worry to Yu Daoqing's face. Without a word, she turned the captain's body over and checked his pupils and pulse.

"The medical equipment in this base is likely inadequate; he must be sent back to the mainland for treatment immediately," Yu Daoqing decided with decisive swiftness. "Prepare the backup spacecraft at once."

The vessel that had brought her here was the base's supply ship, scheduled to return the following day, as they typically only made monthly visits. However, the base housed an emergency spacecraft normally kept in storage, reserved strictly for critical situations.

"Where is the doctor?" Yu Daoqing frowned. The base had several physicians on staff, yet not a single one was present. Rather than immediately notifying the medical team, he had come straight to her; she felt somewhat disappointed by the deputy captain's delayed reaction.

"I have already notified them," the deputy captain said, wiping the sweat from his forehead and wearing an expression of deep self-reproach, as if suddenly realizing his blunder. "I will go prepare the spacecraft," he added, hurrying out the door.

Casting one last glance at the unconscious captain, Yu Daoqing retrieved a small jade bottle from her tunic and instructed the secretary standing behind her, "Pry open his mouth."

One of the female secretaries stepped forward as instructed, forcing the captain's jaw open. Yu Daoqing uncorked the jade vial and poured a few drops of purple liquid into his mouth.

*I hope this is enough to keep him alive,* Yu Daoqing thought.

The captain's symptoms were starkly apparent; they were the classic signs of psychic backlash. Such occurrences were exceedingly rare because human psychic energy (referred to as *Yuan* by Zero, and termed psychic power by the Dabo people—different names for fundamentally the same phenomenon) was normally entirely benign and harmless to its host.

To this day, Dabo scientists had yet to determine the root cause of this terrifying backlash, which afflicted only a tiny fraction of the population.

Those who suffered from psychic backlash were not entirely beyond saving, provided the treatment was administered promptly. *Let us hope he can hold on for a few more days,* Yu Daoqing mused silently.

"Go call Zhong Yun and the others as well," Yu Daoqing instructed after a moment.

One of the secretaries hurriedly turned back to carry out the order.

"We are heading back?" Zhong Yun looked utterly astonished upon hearing the secretary's words. "Weren't we supposed to stay here for twenty days? Why the sudden rush?"

"An emergency has occurred. Please pack your belongings quickly; I still need to notify the others." The secretary was drenched in sweat, and as soon as she finished speaking, she rushed off to inform the next person.

Teeming with questions, Zhong Yun followed the secretary to the first dormitory building. There, he caught sight of the captain lying stiffly on the floor like a corpse, and standing nearby was Yu Daoqing, her expression heavy with worry.

"What has happened?" Zhong Yun hurried over to ask.

"The captain is suffering from a psychic backlash and must be sent back to the mainland for treatment immediately," Yu Daoqing sighed.

At that moment, footsteps echoed from the corridor, and the deputy captain entered, accompanied by another figure. "Eldest Miss, the doctor has arrived." With that, he stepped aside to let the physician enter the room. The doctor was a man in his fifties or sixties with slightly greying hair. He walked straight over and briskly began examining the captain's body.

"The spacecraft is ready as well. We can depart at any moment," the deputy captain said, his gaze casually sweeping past Zhong Yun.

Seeing the doctor turning the captain over, Zhong Yun stepped forward to assist. The doctor instructed him to support the captain's head while pulling a palm-shaped instrument from his medical kit and pressing it against the captain's chest.

"His condition is extremely critical. He must be transferred to a major hospital at once," the doctor stated with a grave expression.

"The spaceship is ready. We depart immediately," Yu Daoqing ordered.

Guided by the doctor, Zhong Yun and the deputy captain carefully lifted the captain's body between them and followed Yu Daoqing to the launch pad. Zhong Yun remembered that this area had originally housed a massive enclosed warehouse. Now, the warehouse was gone, replaced by an egg-shaped spacecraft noticeably larger than the supply ship that had brought them to the planet.

Once aboard, they immediately placed the captain into a medical rejuvenation pod, hoping it would prolong his stability.

"Return to the base," Yu Daoqing instructed the deputy captain before takeoff.

The deputy captain grew anxious on the spot. "There is no captain we can trust on this vessel. Let me pilot it. As for the base, with a few remaining instructors there, nothing should go wrong."

Thinking it over, Yu Daoqing realized he had a point. Space navigation was no trifling matter; without seasoned experience and exceptional professional qualifications, no one could serve as a captain. Among everyone present, the deputy captain was unquestionably the most suitable choice.

"Very well, the ship is in your hands." Yu Daoqing was not one to hesitate; having reasoned this through, she granted her approval and instructed the doctor to keep a close watch on the captain.

"Zhong Yun, let's go," Yu Daoqing called out.

Zhong Yun was standing before the rejuvenation pod, staring intently at the captain's bare body inside, as if searching for something. Snapped out of his trance by Yu Daoqing's voice, he blinked and replied, "Coming."

He followed Yu Daoqing toward the exit, glanced back one last time at the rejuvenation pod, and felt a faint trace of lingering doubt.

The deputy captain's heart skipped a beat. *Could he have noticed some flaw?* Reviewing the entire plan in his mind, he found no obvious loopholes. He reassured himself: at this stage, even if Zhong Yun had spotted something amiss, what could he possibly do about it?

As they stepped through the hatch, Zhong Yun inadvertently caught sight of the hand of a crew member stationed near the door. The crewman's fingers were exceptionally pale. Zhong Yun's gaze merely brushed past without dwelling on it, feeling no particular reaction aside from a fleeting spark of suspicion.

Everyone donned their spacesuits, retreated to their respective cabins, and the spacecraft lifted off, piercing into the boundless expanse of the cosmos.

*(Author's Note: I woke up this morning and opened my browser, only to be completely stunned. In just a single night, my vote count had surged by over sixty votes. My gratitude is beyond words—thank you all so much.)*

*(There are still ten days left until the end of the month. Whether we can break into the top six depends entirely on you. Brothers with votes, please cast them my way. I only have this single opportunity in my first month, I'm counting on you.)*