It was a close match for Ye Chong, as it felt like it had been centuries since he last battled on a mech. Ye Chong was considered fortunate that Huang Zheng's performance dropped as drastically as he fell with that silly mistake of his. Technically piloting Moon King as a mere transportation was not an issue, still that did not mean that Ye Chong would ace combating on a test drive.
Other than the sheer luck, it was the endless loop of daily basic training that saved him. If it was not because of theses sets of movement techniques seamlessly connected, he would not be able to reveal that opening by the foe. If he did not manage to unearth that opening, well, it would have been a different tale, who knows...
Ye Luo was giving off a stare as if he was looking at a monster when Ye Chong got off the cabin. Our hero had grown up being given a strange stare at, so he took it pretty well.
"Don't judge a pilot by the badges. I must admit that is very true. You *are* a born pilot. It turned to be not an entire blasphemy for Moon King to be in your hand. It is an honor in fact."
And there Ye Chong was, making colossal eye-roll in the dark.
OOH. "Blasphemy" huh? What happened to whichever that "blasphemy" when you used Moon King as a giant walking detector?
Well of course, the salty line rang only inside Ye Chongs mind, since this very pretentious being was still the one who gifted him the Moon King. It would be a bad timing to hurl saltiness at the moment.
"So, you call this mech 'The Phoenix'?" asked Ye Chong.
"Not exactly. People don't call this model 'The Phoenix', rather it is a name for one rank of mechs in the Xi Feng tribe. Generally, 'The Phoenix' is pretty much on top of all units in the Xi Feng tribe, with only 'The Phoenix Lord' above. To be frank, 'The Phoenix' was one rank lower than Moon King but it is remarkable for you to master the battle control of the mech so quickly. Yes it is!" Ye Luo complimented.
"What exactly is its battle control?" asked Ye Chong.
"Beats me. Where should I get that answer for you? Do I look like Dr. What?" Ye Luo responded irresponsibly. That was when Ye Chong realized the fact that this ex-owner of Moon King had only piloted his baby no more than thrice. If that was the case, Ye Chong did sound silly for his question.
"So is this the strongest mech of the Ye family?" Ye Chong asked as he thought about the rank system mentioned by Ye Luo. So, above the Phoenix, there was only the Phoenix Lord and the Phoenix shared a similar standard with the Moon King, judging from these premises, the Moon King should be quite superior in the family.
"Nope," Ye Luo shook his head in disagreement. "Only Brahmara, Huang Jiming and Ye Yin own the one true, greatest mech in the entire galaxy. Well, if you ask me which one is slightly better, I can't tell. I don't know, nobody knows, the great trio had never fought against each other before, although we all strongly believe that all three of them are at the same level. They are extremely low-profiled when it comes to the name of their models. Ye Yin seems to know the names but I don't really care. Never ask particularly."
He carried on, "The three aristocrats had been leading the world in mech development, as the generation of their mechs lapsed as quick as the sunrises and sunsets, even supreme models like this would be replaced every 20 years or so, longer than the average mechs below still." He looked above and pondered.
"Hehehe!" He sneered and elaborated upon Ye Chong's curious eyes," 20 years ago, it has twenty good old years. It was the time when the finest mech of each family was notoriously loud in the fields, unlike the generation who never hit the bright outside today. Well, those pilots of the finest craft did not seem to have a good ending anyway. Back to my story, dur
ing that decade, somehow the top player of Xue Lai clan and our family just vanished one day. Don't ask me the hows and whys, we too have not arrived at a satisfying theory on this. The top player of Xi Feng tribe though, had a tragic death at the free space zone. Well, it is more like a comical death to me if you ask. The person just got a fine slice-through before he could even deploy his mech. It was a mentalist who did this, I heard, to be honest I never expected a mentalist of such capability exists in this world. Only the core members of the three aristocrats knew the news while the world outside remained confusingly oblivious of it as they saw the top players of the three families just vaporized without sight. You know it was a big news when it flooded the headlines of every network back then." Said Ye Luo teasingly.
Somehow... Ye Chong somehow felt he knew who that mentalist was. The story reminded him of Huang Baiyi. Ye Chong wondered if Huang Baiyi was that legendary mentalist who knocked out the top player of Xi Feng in one turn.
"So what would happen to these men?" Ye Chong asked as he pointed at the men trembling like little animals. Certainly they could never release these men since that would expose two of them as trespassers here.
"I don't know." Ye Luo shrugged and said, "Knock them out for the moment I guess?" And both of them leaped and slammed the men.
"HAH! Look what I've found!" Ye Luo said as he brandished the communicator in his hand proudly. "Gimme a sec." And he dialed to make reports to the authority.
"Okay, we'll let them do the remaining." Another irresponsible willful demonstration from Ye Luo as he tossed the communicator to one corner.
"The Xi Feng tribe does have something to do with the Abductor. Probably those newbies in their base are poor little kids being abducted from the free space zone. Jeez, talk about hypocrites. I seriously once thought those of Xi Feng tribe are the good guys." Stated Ye Luo disdainfully.
Well... Ye Chong was silent. He knew the odd relationship between those two like centuries ago, but he did not intend to spit everything since it would involve Huang Baiyi.
They carried on searching in the base. Even though Huang Zheng had wiped out all the main data stored at the processor, there remained lots more things waiting to be wiped out. From this one could see how the authority of Xi Feng tribe was still sane since the supports given to the Abductor were rather limited in the end, as overpowered technologies that could wreck the entire space zone like the mechs were not seen here.
"Get going. We are leaving and we must be fast, can't be waiting for the adults to get home. They would drag me all the way back into this prison again. Man, I can't. I can't," Ye Luo said intensively.
The request was not something against Ye Chong's will, so no doubt he would accept it. To begin with, he was not related to this place anyway.
And they left.
"Well where are you going next, pal?" Ye Luo asked as he rubbed his nose.
"Here." Ye Chong took out a map he got from Han Yue, with his finger positioned at the area labelled "Wang Family Village". Yup, he would be looking for Rui Bing, he would want a reunion right away. Rui Bing was his pal, his mate, his companion. He could not care less if the others survived, but towards Rui Bing, he could not show complete negligence.
"Wait, this far?" Ye Luo was shocked. Based on the location, it did look insanely distant. He estimated the distance on paper with his hands, then magnified the figure in proportions, he thought of their speed and the time it would need. "Okay," he said as he scratched his chin and got an answer, "It would take about a month and a half if we walk fast enough."
"Uhh, you do know we have a mech, do you?"
"Oh..."
That one line from Ye Chong rang coldly, smashing the tensed expression of Ye Luo.
"Right."
Absolutely, the mech was impeccably rapid. A travel that was about a month and a half by foot only lasted less than two hours by mech.
However...
"Ugh..." Ye Luo's face was pale, as he collapsed on the ground with his insides rumbling, soon he began discharging his soul and he felt like it would only be a matter of time till his bile fell out along.
Ye Chong stood by innocently.
"Remind me..." He gasped, "T-that... that I am not taking a ride from you... a...again!" Ye Luo tried standing up, and he fell. Another round of puking.
It was a nightmare for a condensed ride.
It was more than a nightmare when the cabin could not fit two persons naturally and Ye Luo could only travel in Moon King's grip. That was surely some first-class seat on a fancy flight. The Moon King did not travel fast, the incoming gales rubbed on Ye Luo's face, those were not a problem Ye Luo thought, as he actually found the experience expressing.
Well, at first he thought so.
Ye Chong felt it would be too dull and incompetent to just fly in the air. His sense of incompetency only intensified after that close fight he had which convinced his unfamiliarity with the mech. So he would not want to waste any chance of practicing on the Moon King.
And so, in the dark, when the gorgeous moon hung over the nightfall, the Moon King attempted multiple extreme moves in the air, from the moment it launched till it landed somewhere near Wang Family Village.
Ye Luo's safe flight then transformed into the most chaotic rollercoaster ride in the history of humankind as he finally understood how his laundry felt when he cleaned them. There were tumbles, then sharp turns, insane lifts and torturing falls. Sudden accelerations and random jerks were common in this ride. The worst part was... Ye Chong seemed to be so indulged in the session that he forgot Ye Luo was in his grip.
"Stop!"
"NOOOOOO! I SAID STOP!" Ye Luo screamed helplessly.
Ye Luo, being part of the Ye family, was strong by nature. A saving grace it was. Still it felt half of his soul had dropped somewhere on their way when they had finally landed. There was never a time when he would appreciate the ground so much.
Ye Luo's spiteful stare had triggered the motherly sympathy in Ye Chong, as he comforted, "It always hurts on your first time at the back. I'll try a different position when you ride on me next time. Don't worry."
Ye Luo who was standing on his waists suddenly crashed to the ground again. The puking continued.
It took about 30 minutes till Ye Luo got a hold of himself.
His face looked drained, his legs were shaking.
Ye Chong looked fine, but he was pretty alarmed by then. This was because they had treaded the territory of the Wangs. He must not be recognized or he would be done for.
Well he took a different camouflage this time, hopefully it would help. "Hmm..." On second thought...
Ye Chong took out a bottle of camouflage formula and passed it to Ye Luo.
"What's this?"
"Something to change your look."
"OH?" Ye Luo's eyes lustered out of the blue as he proactively massaged the solution on his face.
At this point, Ye Chong was confident enough to say that Rui Bing must have gotten into something.
The detection system of Moon King was strong that they found the sea where he parked Cornerstone. But somehow, he failed to connect to the communicator inside his steed under the sea.
Did something really happen to them?