Chapter 829: Chapter 699: Encounter and Departure (First Update)

Primordial Warriors... a unique charm? Qu Jianlei really wanted to ask what that was supposed to mean.

But actually asking out loud didn’t seem quite appropriate; the other party might think he lacked depth.

So he could only ask, "Then this senior who’s only half a step away from the Supreme... who is it?"

Sheriff clearly hesitated for a moment before finally saying, "I’m not very sure either. Rumor has it the name is... Jia Shuqing?"

"Huh?" Qu Jianlei almost jumped up, his surprise written all over his face. "You must’ve got it wrong. How come I don’t know about this?"

He hadn’t spent that long with Granny Jia, and his understanding of her was fairly superficial.

But he knew very well what kind of person the old lady was: a shut‑in woman obsessed with technical research... a shut‑in old lady.

Granny Jia might take on disciples, but for such a long time, the disciple never once goes to see their master?

Besides, the old lady’s great‑granddaughter on her daughter’s side had a pretty good relationship with him; Zi Jiu Immortal had never mentioned this either, right?

He was very surprised, and Sheriff was even more surprised. "You don’t know... you know Jia Shuqing?"

Qu Jianlei gave a slight nod. "Met a few times. Elder Jia... that senior is very quick‑witted. She left a strong impression on me."

Sheriff frowned a little, still finding it hard to accept that the other guy actually knew Jia Shuqing.

But if he kept questioning it, it would just offend people.

So after thinking it over, he said, "I’m not sure who his master is. I heard Jia Shuqing intends to impact the Supreme realm."

Your intel is a bit outdated. Qu Jianlei shook his head indifferently; Granny Jia had already failed that impact.

But since it involved the old lady’s privacy, he didn’t say anything.

Sheriff looked a bit puzzled. "Why are you shaking your head?"

"Nothing," Qu Jianlei replied calmly. "If it’s Jia Shuqing, just leave it to me to handle."

Sheriff wasn’t too worried anyway. As long as it wasn’t someone above the Supreme, there was a fight to be had; and even if they lost, it’s not like they couldn’t run.

"Supremes aren’t that free either. It’s unlikely one would go out of their way just to take revenge. I’m just reminding you—don’t bump into one someday and not even realize it."

Call that revenge? That’s called suicide, okay? Qu Jianlei smiled, unconcerned.

What he was actually more curious about was, "Are there many Supremes who follow the master‑disciple system?"

"Not many, I guess," Sheriff answered casually. It was obvious he wasn’t very sensitive to this system—he wasn’t a transmigrator, after all.

He even had a few complaints. "But the master‑disciple relationship is tighter than teacher‑student. It’s kind of a hassle."

After they finished eating, Qu Jianlei accompanied Sheriff for a foot massage.

But when the latter wanted to keep playing, he didn’t stick around. He got up, paid the bill, and left.

With this round of hospitality, the Warship incident should be completely written off, and the two sides had established a suitable level of ’friendship’.

Since he’d sorted out the Customs Enforcement Division on the Transfer Star, Qu Jianlei planned to properly tidy up the piece of land he’d bought.

First, he had to fix up the stone walls around it, and the key was not to leave any obvious man‑made traces. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Second was installing all kinds of surveillance and hiding them cleverly, trying to keep anyone from noticing.

The environment here was harsh and sparsely populated; there was no need to make it as tight as Half-Star Island. Too professional would actually draw attention.

Even so, going around cleaning it up still took him eight days, and the Spiritual Qi in his body dropped by thirty percent.

Then he went into the underground stone cavern and, at Little Lake’s request, spent another two days tidying up the interior.

After these ten days, he was completely exhausted, so he set up the Spirit Gathering Array again and rested for three days.

On this day, Qu Jianlei was in deep sleep when he vaguely felt a sudden stirring, and slowly opened his eyes.

He kept feeling like something was about to happen, but when he carefully tried to divine it, he couldn’t figure anything out.

"Little Lake, in these days I’ve been resting, has anyone appeared around here?"

The Big Head Butterfly rotated its body. "The weather hasn’t been great these past few days. I can say for sure no vehicles have come near the area."

The surveillance was set up very sparsely; if an Awakened deliberately snuck in, it might not be detected, but any vehicle definitely couldn’t be hidden.

"Forget it." Qu Jianlei found the Spiritual Qi in his body had accumulated to ninety percent and decided to end his rest.

He put away the Spirit Gathering Array and, after calculating the time, felt it’d be a bit rushed to make another trip to Celestial Handle Star.

So Qu Jianlei headed straight for the Star Port, planning to pilot the Starship back to Gedel.

Over a hundred meters underground, the black soil was slowly seeping upward.

As the Spirit Gathering Array was packed away and the excess Spiritual Qi was absorbed by Qu Jianlei, the black soil twisted again.

"Why... why has the aura disappeared again? This shouldn’t... shouldn’t be. No, I still have to keep moving up."

After returning to Gedel, Qu Jianlei contacted Li Ang. "You still haven’t found new Guards?"

He had been guarding the Mine for over a year already, and with the five months of rest, it added up to twenty months.

Of the twenty‑four months they’d agreed on, only four were left, but he really didn’t want to wait any longer.

It wasn’t that the place wasn’t peaceful enough; it was mainly a bit isolated. Getting in and out wasn’t very convenient, and it burned through quite a few Energy Blocks.

To be fair, if he hadn’t run into several battles and made a bit of money, that Guardian Fee would only barely cover his expenses.

Anyway, the two‑year period was just a rough agreement; there was no way they hadn’t contacted new Guards.

Li Ang sighed and said helplessly that he would get in touch with the higher-ups as soon as possible.

He actually knew very well what Wanmi Mining had in mind: this group from White Sturgeon was just too useful—never mind their combat power, they even had a Supreme sitting there.

With the record of killing Siegwa laid out for all to see, anyone with bad intentions had to detour around them and wouldn’t dare harbor any stupid ideas.

The rarest thing was, unlike other overbearing forces, this bunch had zero interest in the Mine, which avoided a lot of trouble.

Before this, Wanmi had even expressed a willingness to let them buy in, but they weren’t tempted in the slightest.

So the意思 from above was: keep them guarding for as long as they’re willing to guard; the fees and all that didn’t matter.

In the end, they really were worry-free.

However, expecting the other side to keep guarding forever was unrealistic; any random Supreme would have a pile of things on their plate.

Precisely because of this, every three months Qu Jianlei would take a month’s leave, and the Mine wouldn’t quibble about it—obviously he had things to deal with.

Anyway, as long as this group didn’t completely pull out, during that one month when the Warship wasn’t around, no one dared act rashly either.

If it were some other Guard squad acting this laid‑back, Wanmi Mining would absolutely not agree.

But now that the other side had expressed a desire to leave, Li Ang didn’t dare drag it out and reported it up the chain at once.

A month later, Gottle came again with a cargo Starship and warmly tried to persuade Qu Jianlei to stay.

But Qu Jianlei was very firm about leaving, saying he had already stayed here for far too long.

If it hadn’t been for wanting to sell that Starship back then, he wouldn’t even have taken this job.

Still, it was ultimately a two‑hundred‑million deal that tied down a Supreme for two years, which was fair enough.

Seeing that his mind was made up, Gottle didn’t press him further and said he’d coordinate a Guard team to come take over as soon as possible.

He did, however, have a small request: he hoped they could occasionally come by to take a look when they had time.

—The dock you built, the Mine won’t be using it; it’ll stay reserved for you.

Qu Jianlei could guess what the other party was thinking—nothing more than wanting to borrow his name to intimidate petty troublemakers.

But he himself also needed a few stable footholds; if he ran into trouble in the future, he could still come here to resupply.

It was a win‑win situation—why wouldn’t he agree?

That night Gottle held a banquet, counting as an early farewell for Qu Jianlei—he might not be able to make it on the actual day of departure.

Twenty days later, an Armed Merchant Ship arrived to take over.

Wanmi Mine handled things in a pretty forthright way; they didn’t wait until the last minute to send someone.

The Armed Merchant Ship that came also wanted to make contact with Ship 8384, but Qu Jianlei really had no interest in dealing with them.

As soon as their Starship had just landed, the tattered 8384 drove out of the dock and, without a word, shot straight up into the sky.

The other two Mines also noticed this scene and couldn’t help letting out a long breath. "He finally left!"

Over this past year or so, those two Mines had been living rather on edge.

Having such a bigshot sitting there meant no one dared come make trouble in Gedel, which was great.

But as the two neighbors, they were especially worried that they might accidentally offend him, or that Wanmi Mine might deliberately pick a fight.

Now that they saw him finally leave, their feelings were complicated.

After Qu Jianlei left, he didn’t rush back to the Abandoned Mine Star Body, but went to the Iron Shavings Star Body first.

Titan’s Guards spotted the approaching Starship from five hundred thousand kilometers away, and two Attack Ships lifted off.

But as they got closer, they realized, "Damn, that seems to be... 8384‑class Merchant Ship, please stop."

By now, this Starship already had quite a reputation in the Asteroid Belt: it looked like scrap on the outside, but its strength was frighteningly strong.

Wiping out the Kitchen Maid team was nothing, but taking down the fleet led by the Supreme Siegwa was truly astonishing.

What shocked people the most, though, was that this Starship had actually dared to take the initiative and attack the Warship of the Customs Enforcement Team.

Even scarier, not only did they win, the Customs Enforcement Division didn’t even continue to pursue the matter afterward.

The Asteroid Belt was a chaotic mix of dragons and snakes, with far too many forces of all sizes; some minor powers didn’t exactly have great intel.

But after this long, this major incident had fully fermented into common knowledge.

Titan wasn’t some small force; it was one of the few major powers in the Asteroid Belt.

If they hadn’t recognized who it was, how could the mighty Titan Group possibly say "please stop"?

When they ran into ordinary Starships and were in a bad mood, firing a warning shot right away was perfectly normal.

However, although they knew the other side was not to be messed with, as Guards they still had to bite the bullet and state:

"This is a private Star Body of the Titan Group, this is a private Star Body of the Titan Group."

The next moment, a cold voice came over the public channel.

"We’re well aware this is Titan property. As for why we’re here, I trust you also know very well."

"So I’ll just ask once: are you going to stop us from landing?"

(First update of April, asking for baseline monthly ticket support.)