Deep within the black market—
Gu Qing and Ace, disguised as a pair of female siblings, moved with elegant poise, their makeup flawless. They slipped into the market with a clear goal: rare spirit plants and energy stones. Yet the moment they entered the auction hall, they immediately sensed the unusual crowd.
The venue was packed, insects whispering, exchanging information. Some gasped that males were even being auctioned this time; others murmured about the appearance of several influential female nobles participating. Gu Qing’s brows tightened slightly as he assessed these sudden variables.
As each item went on display, shouts and bids rose in a crescendo. The energy stones were fiercely contested, prices climbing higher with every round; the spirit plants, however, were largely ignored. Most insects treated them as ordinary plants, even dismissing them as having limited use. Gu Qing’s eyes flickered subtly—these plants were imbued with spiritual energy, invaluable for cultivation, yet here they were discarded like trash. Calm on the surface, he silently noted the disparity.
Thanks to the bounty from their beast hunts, Gu Qing eventually secured the items he desired at a high price. Just as he exhaled in quiet relief and prepared to store the spirit plants, a sudden explosion rocked the hall—flames burst forth, glass shattered, screams pierced the air, and chaos erupted.
Gu Qing scanned the scene, pupils contracting sharply—Milton and Phil were surrounded by black market guards! Milton’s mental sea teetered on the edge of collapse, and beside him, three disheveled males clearly marked as auctioned “goods.”
Gu Qing’s eyes hardened. He shouted: “Ace, take the items and go!”
He thrust the storage device into Ace’s hands. Amidst the fire, screams, and fleeing insects, his gaze cut like a blade, locking onto Milton and the others.
“And you—” Ace began.
“I’ll come for you.” Gu Qing replied, then in the next instant, he darted forward like a streak of white light, disappearing into the chaos and flames.
——
In the warehouse district, smoke and fire intertwined. Guards encircled Milton, Phil, and the three males, closing in relentlessly.
Phil leaned against a black market guard’s corpse, panting, a shoulder pierced by a bullet, blood streaming. Milton stood before the three males, shielding them, bloodshot eyes scanning for threats.
“We were betrayed!” Phil hissed, voice trembling. “Only a few insects knew of this operation… there was a traitor! They set up an ambush for you!”
Milton’s lips turned pale, teeth gritted. His mental sea had already been unstable before arriving at the black market, and now it teetered closer to collapse.
“Get them out! I’ll cover the rear—”
“No!” Milton shouted. “You’re not the one who can handle this!”
“You are the key, Milton. The military can’t afford to lose you, and neither can the males—”
Before the sentence could finish, a blue figure emerged from the flames and smoke, walking with measured, steady steps, like a blade slicing through chaos.
Blue hair fell gracefully, eyes cold as ice, face sharp and elegant—completely at odds with the filthy black market surroundings.
With a lift of his hand, a dull wooden long sword slid from his sleeve, plain and unsharpened, like a child’s play weapon.
The guards laughed at first, low and mocking, assuming the intruder was a female coming to die: “Look at that one, the weapon isn’t even proper… what a gift of prey.”
Before they could blink, the wooden sword swept past a guard’s neck. No glint of steel, yet the artery was instantly severed. Blood spurted like a fountain, the ground turning crimson, and the hall fell into stunned silence, horror freezing every remaining guard.
Milton flinched, eyes wide in disbelief at the wooden sword, throat quivering.
A simple wooden sword… yet executed with such precision, mental waves barely perceptible?
The initially mocking guards froze, only when the first body fell did the scene change dramatically.
“That’s… a wooden sword?”
“No way… that thing can actually kill insects?”
The second guard lunged in fury. Sword flashed again, tip piercing the chest. He widened his eyes, only seeing the hilt before collapsing.
“This isn’t the kind of combat a female should have!”
Phil paled, whispering, “I’ve never seen attacks like this…”
He turned sharply to Milton, teeth clenched, “That’s not a female… that’s a monster.”
Milton remained silent, staring at the unadorned wooden sword.
—Neither standard military technique nor psychic-based female combat.
Each strike, deadly precise, opponent’s movement elegant and uncanny, independent of psychic power—sweeping away foes in mere seconds.
Standing at the edge of smoke and flames, Milton’s heart pounded violently. One name almost slipped from his lips:
“…Gu Qing?”
He whispered, not even understanding why.
“What Gu Qing? Are you insane? Retreat!” Phil shouted, shielding the males as they retreated.
The blue-haired female figure stood in the smoke and fire, steps steady as cold light, slicing through the chaos. She turned back, voice icy, radiating irresistible authority: “Where is your vessel?”
Phil hesitated, then carefully replied: “East District dock… hasn’t lifted off yet!”
“Take the males and leave immediately. I’ll cover the rear.”
Phil opened his mouth, hesitated, but those cold blue eyes were an unspoken command he could not defy. Teeth clenched, he said: “We’ll wait for you on the vessel.”
Milton, however, did not move.
“I’m not leaving.” He met the eyes of the other, voice low and resolute. “You have no right to cover the rear alone.”
The other paused, then nodded, pulling Milton into a side alley.
Meanwhile, Phil led the three males down another hidden alley, avoiding the center of fire and debris.
At the alley’s end, Gu Qing and Milton found an old starship. The hatch was unlocked, evidently used for smuggling cargo.
Milton rushed into the cockpit, powering up the systems. Gu Qing silently adjusted the interface and seat for him.
The starship roared into the sky, anti-gravity devices lifting it past the chaotic black market streets.
Several pursuing starships rose in the distance.
Gu Qing stood aside, eyes on the approaching holographic display, voice cold:
“The eastern magnetic storm layer can mask our movements. Head that way, to the barren star!”
Milton acknowledged with a nod, pulling the control lever sharply.
Then, in the next instant, he froze.
That familiar sense of pressure tore through him, surging from the depths of his mental sea.
Pupils contracted, cold sweat rolling down his forehead, fingertips trembling.
Psychic power… in revolt.
“…Hss… no….”
Milton gritted his teeth, forcing the uncontrollable surge down. But the power was immense, spreading rapidly, the entire vessel’s alarms screaming.
【Warning: Main neural link abnormal—】
【Psychic synchronization unstable—】
Gu Qing’s gaze snapped toward Milton, brow twitching, locking onto the side of his face, veins standing out.
“Milton! Stay steady!”
He could not respond, eyes reddening as if dragged into a burning crucible, every breath shaking.
At that moment, a black market starship behind locked onto their vulnerability.
【Energy trajectory stable—target deviation confirmed—】
【Firing!】
A blinding energy beam tore through the night sky, whipping like a long lash.
Boom——!!
The blast struck the ship’s port side. The vessel trembled violently, bulkheads collapsing, fire and shockwaves sweeping the interior.
The ship spun uncontrollably, alarms blaring.
【Main engine damaged—system entering crash mode】
Gu Qing braced against the tilted control panel, eyes on Milton, trembling, psychic waves running wild, blood seeping from his ear.
Expression cold, he pressed a hand against Milton’s back, forcing spiritual energy into him, suppressing the psychic flood.
“Don’t move, I’ve got you!”
Milton’s chest heaved violently, hearing that voice through the haze, his reason pulled back by a thread. He closed his eyes, consciousness slowly coalescing…
—But the fall was irreversible.
They streaked like burning meteors through the sky, tearing through clouds and night, ultimately crashing onto the barren star.
Boom——!
The starship screamed, impact deafening. Steel shattered, fragments scattered violently.
Amidst the inferno, only the golden rippling barrier flowed around the two, shielding them from the blast.
Ship debris littered the ground, fire and smoke swirling like mist. Fallen leaves stirred in the wind, frightening nearby beasts into flight.
At that very moment, the “transformation” concealing Gu Qing’s true appearance silently lifted.
The blue-haired, blue-eyed disguise dissolved, revealing his original form—black hair like ink, sword-like brows, starlit eyes, calm as a deep moonlit lake, beauty almost unreal. Cold and decisive, utterly unlike male aesthetic norms, yet radiating an irresistible presence.
Milton, furrowing his brow, psychic revolt still raging, stirred weakly, eyes barely open through the haze—
He seemed to see a figure with black hair and dark eyes.
Like the shadow that had once protected him, buried deep in his memory—
It’s… him?
He… came… to save me?
Consciousness tumbled into the abyss, and Milton finally sank into a deep, uninterrupted slumber.
Gu Qing held him steadily, stepping out from the burning wreckage of the starship.
From the distance, engines roared—dozens of black market mechs descended, encircling them. Beyond that, countless black market starships approached, blocking the sky like a storm.
“Target locked. Confirmed: male insect.”
The lead female’s eyes flickered with greed and excitement, barely contained:
“A male… and such a high-level male…!”
Through the mech’s viewport, she saw Gu Qing quietly holding Milton, immobile, mistaking him for a frightened prey.
“Don’t be afraid, little male—your big brothers will take care of you!”
“Oh wow, that face alone will break auction records!”
“I’ve never handled one of this quality… ha, today’s payday is huge…”
Laughter and taunts crackled through the mech comms, full of arrogance and malice.
The only silent one was the Tao Little Sprite floating in Gu Qing’s mind.
It gazed at Gu Qing’s expression—eyes calm to the extreme, a silence that even it dared not break.
【…These fools… it’s over for them.】
Gu Qing raised his right hand. A seemingly ordinary wooden sword appeared, his left arm still cradling Milton.
“A wooden sword? Hahaha—look at him! Scared stiff, typical little male!”
“He’s gone mad, lose him alive!”
The guards laughed, yet had not noticed anything amiss.
Then—
A streak of golden light, like moonlight through sheer silk, slowly cloaked the wooden sword, flowing softly across it.
Gu Qing waved lightly; the golden radiance surged outward like a tidal wave.
Boom!!!—
The advancing starships exploded in midair, shattering like fireworks. Fragments of hulls and machinery flew in all directions, wind whipping across the battlefield.
The black market pursuers froze, every mech in stunned silence.
“…Wh-what…?”
Gu Qing finally lifted his head. His black eyes were cold as ice.
His voice seemed to penetrate every hull, echoing inside the minds of every female insect:
“—Next, it’s your turn.”
＊＊＊＊
Not long after, the battlefield fell silent, consumed by fire.
Clouds swirled overhead, flames still licking the ground, littered with shattered mechs, starships, and twisted, charred bodies. Smoke carried the acrid stench of scorched metal and burning flesh.
Gu Qing stood in the center, left arm holding Milton tightly, right hand pointing the sword at the only surviving leader of the pursuing force.
The female slumped to the ground, face smeared with blood, eyes wide with terror, stumbling backward.
“N-no, no, no! I’ve told you everything I know! You can’t—you can’t kill me!”
Her voice trembled, eyes frantically searching for escape, but nowhere to run.
She could not comprehend it.
What… what kind of monster was this?
The black market had mobilized dozens of elite units, the latest starships, and heavy mechs to capture Admiral Milton. Even the military might not have broken through so easily.
Yet the “male insect” in front of her, a single being with one sword, had annihilated them all.
That wooden sword… how could it be…
That cold, inhumanly handsome face… how could it possibly… be a male insect?
Those eyes… devoid of emotion, of any human warmth… not a male, but a demon… a——
Before she could finish, her vision spun, body uncontrollable.
The next instant, she saw her own head sitting where she had been, eyes frozen on the shadow that had swung the final strike.
One swing. Head severed.
Gu Qing turned away, robes immaculate, not a speck of dust or blood.
Inside the mind, the Tao Little Sprite shrank into a tiny ball, too scared to make a sound.
It had never seen the Sword Master so furious, never seen him slaughter every enemy—leaving none alive.
In that moment, it finally understood just how terrifying it was to provoke the Sword Master’s wrath.
Gu Qing spoke softly, voice calm, entirely unlike the man who had just decimated an army:
“Find a nearby cave. I need to heal him.”
【Y-yes! Right away, right away, searching, searching!】 The Tao Little Sprite flitted frantically, scanning the map data.
Gu Qing adjusted the position of the one in his arms, holding Milton more securely, then stepped into the depths of the forest, his silhouette swallowed by smoke and night.