Chapter 445 Six of One, Half a Dozen the Other

A “road accident” occurring between stars.h.i.+ps can be said to be extremely rare in the big universe era. Therefore, when the “Alpha-Edward” stars.h.i.+p suddenly appears on the flight path and crashes head-on into it, the huge cargo stars.h.i.+p makes an emergency response in time. Nevertheless, it still collides with the Edward.

The cargo stars.h.i.+p is twice bigger than the Edward. The side on which the Edward hits is packed with goods, so there are no casualties. Still, both parties have suffered some losses. In particular, the cyan little fox’s medicine field has been destroyed completely. The owner flies into a rage.

The damage caused by the s.p.a.ce jump has not been repaired, but the other party aggressively sends out a stream of chaotic signals. The signals are accepted and translated by Xiaozhi. According to its a.n.a.lysis, the stars.h.i.+p doesn’t belong to the Alpha Alliance.

It turns out that they have come to the turf of the Nami Alliance, a counterpart of the Alpha Alliance. The cargo stars.h.i.+p receives no response from the other party, so they use the interstellar common tongue for communication.

“Who are you? You stand in our way for no reason. Do you want us to take you to the Alliance Court?”

Lin Luoran raises her eyebrows. The other party’s stars.h.i.+p is bigger than the Edward. According to her spiritual mind, there are weapons on the stars.h.i.+p, though it is marked as a cargo s.h.i.+p.

In fact, she has learned a lot from Xiaozhi during the past six months of interstellar drift. For example, she learns something about flight paths.

“Xiaozhi, do you know the Nami Alliance?”

As her spiritual mind explores the stars.h.i.+p of the other party, the spirit power flows like water, which she doesn’t intend to hide. The main purpose of the survey is to know about the other party’s weaponry. As for the number of their people, it’s never the focus of a possible interstellar war.

“The Nami Alliance is about 5,000 light years away from the Alpha Alliance. Most of its turf is within the Galaxy, and its far north is near the Andromeda Galaxy. The Nami Alliance ranks top five in power among the seventeen alliances in the Galaxy. Like the Alpha Alliance, it is named after a powerful star.”

Lin Luoran nods. Xiaozhi has made a lot of progress recently. It refers to the Nami Alliance’s rank to imply that they’d better be low-key on the Nami Alliance’s turf. Just think that they can’t even defeat the Alpha Alliance!

She ponders for a while and asks, “Xiaozhi, is this path desolate?”

Who would take such a course on the edge of the Nami Alliance’s turf?

The intelligent brain program gives her an answer. Lin Luoran knows she has got it. There’s something unusual with the cargo stars.h.i.+p.

She tells Xiaozhi to signal. “We are similar to you. If you won’t let us go, we will both go to the Alliance Court.”

Obviously, Lin Luoran’s stars.h.i.+p is smaller than the other party’s, but she is so confident. Is her stars.h.i.+p well-armed? Lin Luoran only says that two parties are similar. The Nami Alliance can’t judge the power of the people before them.

The cargo stars.h.i.+p is silent for a long time before it finally sails past the Edward. It refrains from opening fire. Before the people on the Edward know it, that cargo stars.h.i.+p disappears into the vast sea of stars.

“The people of the Nami Alliance seem nice.” Ma Shuangshuang feels relieved. Everyone else in the central control room looks at her with pity.

Ma Shuangshuang touches her face. Nothing is on her face.

Ma Yiming is embarra.s.sed, almost on the verge of tears. Has he protected his sister so well that she doesn’t know what the world looks like?

Lin Luoran can’t help laughing. She turns her head to look at Han Weiya. “Do you know why the other party just let us go?”

Han Weiya lowers her head to think about it. “The other party… are smugglers?”

Except smugglers, who will take such a desolate course, afraid of being discovered? It’s easy for Han Weiya to think of this, since she is the daughter of an interstellar businessman.

Lin Luoran nods but then shakes her head. “Smuggling is one thing, but there’s another reason. Colin should be able to figure it out.”

Colin Weir’s handsome face turns pale. “Yes, they should be interstellar pirates.”

Apart from smugglers, only interstellar pirates will take the desolate path. Judging from their warehouse and weaponry, the other party are likely to be both smugglers and pirates.

Lin Luoran is also curious about this—why didn’t they loot the Edward?

…

“Boss, that stars.h.i.+p looked shabby. Since it was in a desolate place, why didn’t we attack it?” A tall fat man wriggles on the seat. He has thick, dark eyebrows and pointed ears. He wears a tailored uniform, but it’s a mismatch to his bearing. It seems to have been stolen from someone else.

If you look closely, you will notice a circle of orange scales behind the fat man’s ears, which is the most obvious sign of the Nami people.

He’s in a small meeting room. A dozen people are sitting in the room like a group of monkeys with hats on. The woman seated at the head of the table has most of her blond hair hidden under a blue captain hat. The hat also covers the orange-red scales behind her ears. The woman’s features are impressing, the flame-like lips in particular. Her slender figure is wrapped in a blue captain suit. She sits lazily, but green light flashes as her slender eyes open and close.

Not a wolfish tough woman, but a beauty with flaming red lips and a pair of green eyes.

Her name is Hien Windsor. She’s the owner of this stars.h.i.+p and head of this group of men who look different from one another.

Lin Luoran is right. Hien Windsor not only engages in smuggling, but is also head of the pirates who once made interstellar businessmen of the Nami Alliance frightened out of their wits. The name “Queen Windsor” alone will scare many fledgling merchants.

She leisurely trims her fingernails. “Blockhead, do you know why I let go of that stars.h.i.+p?”

Blockhead is the above-mentioned fat man with thick and dark eyebrows. Hearing Windsor call this ugly name, he replies obsequiously, “Boss, are we going to whitewash ourselves?”

The men nod like chickens eating rice as they wait for Windsor’s answer.

They feel it a pity that the Queen just let go of that stars.h.i.+p. After all, it was an illegal stars.h.i.+p, small and broken. Even if they s.n.a.t.c.h it, the people cannot sue them.

Annoyed with the brainless crowd, Windsor has a headache. “Nonsense! What’s the good of looting that broken stars.h.i.+p? Our s.h.i.+pment should be the top priority. If the deal is concluded, it will make much more money than you do by s.n.a.t.c.hing a shabby s.h.i.+p!”

Blockhead raises his eyebrows. Since the Queen planned to marry, she has been much gentler. However, he feels more at ease when he is scolded by her.

But is time the only consideration of that decision? Blockhead is a bit puzzled.

Having coaxed all the people out of the meeting room, Hien Windsor lowers her green eyes. Except for her, she’s afraid no one else on the stars.h.i.+p had felt the streaming spirit power.

It makes her chill though it flows gently.

Windsor doesn’t care what the other party is. She looks stunningly s.e.xy and seems stupid, but in fact, she is cruel and prudent. “Queen Windsor” is wanted by the Nami Alliance, but she has never been caught. Indeed, she leads a good life. The reason? Well, Windsor is more ruthless than men. Meanwhile, she has a sense of propriety as most women do.

In other words, she is prudent.

Queen Windsor never loots a “s.h.i.+p” when there’s some uncertainty.

…

The “Alpha-Edward” stars.h.i.+p where Lin Luoran and her companions stay is a “trespa.s.sers’ s.h.i.+p”. It is not unfair to call them trespa.s.sers, because they break into the turf of another alliance in the Galaxy without any business certificates.

However, the Nami Alliance is so strong that they don’t bother to help the Alpha Alliance extradite its fugitives. As long as one can pay a large sum of money to them, the Nami people don’t care about why he/she comes here. One can even settle down without difficulty. Seen in this light, the Nami Alliance is like a certain country before the new era.

Xiaozhi suggests that they should pay such a fee.

Lin Luoran doesn’t think much about settling down here. She will only regard herself as an earthling all her life.

But actually, the stars.h.i.+p is dest.i.tute of many things, which causes Lin Luoran a headache. How can she pay that fee? To offer them spirit stones, magic weapons or flying swords? Forget it. These things are useless for the Nami Alliance.

“In fact, food with Reiki is highly popular in the Alpha Alliance. Maybe the Nami Alliance will also enjoy such food? Maybe, maybe… ”

Colin Weir hesitates to express himself.

Reiki, which permeates the universe, is the key to longevity.

Intelligent lives, beasts and plants have to rely on Reiki to evolve. However, as technological civilization develops, Reiki on the planet dissipates. This fact isn’t recognized by people until the civilization of the Galaxy has reached a high level, but it is too late.

Crops rich in Reiki don’t grow on the developed stars and planets. Similarly, those organic crops have no Reiki in the slightest. However, Lin Luoran finds few virgin stars and planets during the interstellar travel.

She understands why Colin Weir hesitates to speak. She nods to show “got it”.

She lacks everything, but she has a wonderful s.p.a.ce. Crops grow in it will have Reiki, even when they are stimulated to grow faster.

Gaining a foothold in the Nami Alliance is just the first step of her plan. Perhaps she can even rely on her s.p.a.ce to earn the capital needed to return to the earth? Lin Luoran decides to try selling some spirit rice in the first place.

She plants a batch of rice in the open ground of her s.p.a.ce. After the differentiation of the land, she has to speed up the growth of the rice on the yellow soil land. In this case, the amount of Reiki in the rice is not different from those cultivated outside her s.p.a.ce. Suddenly, an idea occurs to Lin Luoran. Is it possible to temporarily draw the Reiki of her s.p.a.ce to nourish the crops? She doesn’t need much, but just a little bit of it.

If what she considers is practical…Forget it. If her s.p.a.ce was omnipotent, she would not have to make any efforts henceforth.

She can either grow spirit herbs on the black soil land, or replace the spirit herbs with spirit rice. There are always trade-offs in life. Lin Luoran thinks for a long time, and decides to continue planting rice only on the yellow soil land. She selects some spirit stones of the Wood left behind by White Fairy and buries them in the rice field, hoping they will help the rice grow.

While she is waiting for the spirit rice to ripen, the Edward heads towards the biggest trading planet nearby. At the same time, Lin Luoran calls together the siblings of the Ma family.

Ma Shuangshuang has absorbed Training Qi into her body and is practicing the Spells of the Five Elements. Nevertheless, she is unable to protect herself yet. Therefore, she is just the same as the other three in essence in Lin Luoran’s eyes.

Lin Luoran doesn’t refine many magic weapons with monsters these days. However, she has many monster hides. She uses them to refine a lot of good armors. Monster hides are fine materials, much better than the sh.e.l.l of scorpions. Lin Luoran distribute these “clothes”. Colin Weir and Han Weiya also have their share.

However, the armors they receive are not as good as those given to the siblings of the Ma family. After all, the two children are dearer to Lin Luoran.

After Lin Luoran harvests three batches of spirit rice, they come to the N2 trading planet.

Various stars.h.i.+ps that take off from and land on it from time to time show the prosperity of the N2 planet. It’s a barren planet covered by sandstone. It has no production and no minerals, though it’s ten times bigger than the earth. As a hub located at the corner of the Nami Alliance’s interplanetary flight path, it is an excellent trading planet.

The “Alpha-Edward” stars.h.i.+p hasn’t yet been allowed to land, but Lin Luoran recognizes something familiar.

The indentation that has not been completely repaired shows that the cargo stars.h.i.+p is exactly the one they b.u.mped into a few days ago.

Two stars.h.i.+ps, one packed with smugglers and the other trespa.s.sers, encounter. Six of one, half a dozen the other—that is their position.