Alien Hotel.

Chapter 684 Baili's Expression
High orbit above the border colony planet Mela-IX.

The flagship of the unified fleet, the strategic cruiser USS Mass Effect, is quietly hovering within the Starfort's berthing force field.

Bathed in starlight, the iron-gray charged armor stood out in space. Its straight and rigid lines eliminated all superfluous decorations. The entire ship was only covered with simple white paint in the necessary areas. In the middle of the symmetrical hull, the huge acceleration device inside emitted an intermittent glow—the war machine was ready and waiting to be unleashed.

This is a powerful ship with astonishing firepower and protection capabilities. Its design philosophy fully adheres to the "strength overcoming skill" approach of the Inter-Fleet Integrated Fleet. Even though its primary role is as a command node in the fleet, it still equips itself with numerous gun turrets and missile launchers. Moreover, as the latest improved version of the "General"-class strategic cruiser, the Secret Service engineers added a set of "collapse accelerators" at the bow, truly transforming this behemoth into a devastating war machine.

Anyone who stands aboard this interstellar behemoth, gazing upon the mass projector cannons, the iron-gray armor stretching for kilometers before the observation windows, and the radiant glow floating within the acceleration orbit, will undoubtedly feel its majesty and power, and spontaneously experience a sense of boundless power and complete control over all things.

...That's how it should have been.

"What do you mean you just messed up the Hermitage's Stargate, but they don't know it yet?"

"You mean, we can just 'jump' our main fleet behind their starfortress?!"

"...Could all the 'living saints' of the Hermitage be minor versions of dark angels?! What does that mean?!"

“What do you mean by ‘Shadowless Skeleton’ not only alive, but also awake—didn’t you just find the Hermitage’s stargate? How much time has passed? You… no, Yu Sheng, what have you done in this short time…”

Standing on the bridge of the Mass Effect, Baili Qing quickly regained the feeling of working at the Secret Service after only a fifteen-minute phone call with Yu Sheng—a job where everything is unexpected, life is full of ups and downs, and the sky seems to fall when the phone rings.

And after the collapse, the guy on the other side who ripped the sky apart even offered a hypocritical consolation: "The first two things were actually good news..."

“But the news that followed was terrible…” Baili Qing rubbed her forehead and stood in front of the communicator, suddenly feeling a little nostalgic for the days when she worked overtime at the Secret Service. “Besides, those ‘two things’ you mentioned at the beginning could have been combined into one thing; you just said them in two separate sentences.”

Below the holographic projection of the communicator, a subtle arc was swaying back and forth, and Eileen's voice was chattering off-screen: "Hey, Iron-faced Posh, your expressions are changing a lot today! You're not in the office? What's that background of yours? It looks really impressive... Is that the boundary spaceship? You're off today?"

“I’m not a steel-faced monster…” Baili Qing said subconsciously, then rubbed her face vigorously, instantly reverting to her usual stern and unsmiling demeanor. “I’m currently in Mela IX, where a main fleet from the border region is stationed. We’re waiting for you to light up the beacon in the Dark Stream Starfield—besides, we’ve already contacted each other via the spaceship’s communication station, so what are you surprised about, Eileen?”

“She wouldn’t know anything about this, she’s always so clueless,” Yu Sheng waved his hand in the holographic projection. “Anyway, I’ve taken care of that stargate—I haven’t fully taken control yet. You can think of it as me maintaining a ‘holding the handle but not pushing it open’ state, to prevent them from noticing in advance. Once we infiltrate the Holy Land, I’ll ‘broadcast’ the stargate to you…”

"However, I don't know where that 'Mera-IX' is. I can only open doors in places I know, so I need you to first move the fleet to a suitable coordinate—how about the Silence High Orbit?"

Baili Qing looked serious and quickly thought for a moment before speaking: "Although Shuji is your 'territory,' it is still within the Feiyu Star Region. For both countries, the entry of a fleet is no small matter. This will probably require direct communication between the Council and the Taixu Spiritual Pivot, and in terms of time..."

“You don’t need to worry about that. I’ve already communicated with Taixu Lingshu,” Yu Sheng said quickly. “You will jump into the stargate from Yaolu. That stargate is located between Alglade and Feiyu Starfield, 1.2 light-years away from Shuji. After jumping in, you will go directly to the ‘gate’ in Shuji’s high orbit without stopping in between. This line will remain open throughout the entire operation.”

Bai Liqing finally couldn't help but raise an eyebrow: "...This kind of thing can't be arranged in a few words. When did you communicate with them?"

“I contacted Yuanling when the Star-Evolving Body almost crashed into the Taixu Spiritual Pivot,” Yu Sheng said with a bright smile. “I told him I had a score to settle with the Hidden Cult, and I might need to borrow the strength of many people—just now, I told them the time had come, and the matter was settled.”

Baili Qing's eyes changed slightly. Even through the holographic projection, Yu Sheng couldn't tell what was hidden in her micro-expressions at this moment—she seemed a little surprised, a little sentimental, but more than that, she had an indescribable look of contemplation.

After a couple of seconds, she nodded slightly: "Okay, then I'm relieved."

“Yes,” Yu Sheng nodded slightly in agreement. “We will start our operations simultaneously. We will search for the Gate of Eden in the Holy Land, while you will put pressure on the Hermitage at the border to divert their attention. But before we receive any further news, you must not venture too far in rashly. On the one hand, we need to prevent those cultists from acting desperately, and on the other hand, the matter of the ‘Shadowless Skeleton’ makes me very uneasy. If we don’t deal with that gate and that Dark Angel, I’m worried that the situation may change unexpectedly.”

Baili Qing didn't waste any words: "Okay, the border area can cooperate with your actions - after we control the stargate at the border, we'll wait for your news."

“The guards at that stargate shouldn’t pose much of a threat to you, but be careful of that ‘living saint’,” Yu Sheng thought for a moment, then couldn’t help but add a few more words of caution. “We only have a preliminary suspicion that it was ‘made’ by the Shadowless Skeleton, but we really lack specific information. Theoretically, an angelic derivative shouldn’t be as invincible as a true Dark Angel, but I’m afraid it might have some troublesome ‘mechanisms’…” He paused here, then added, “I did fight that thing, but unfortunately I didn’t find out anything about it. Now I don’t know where it went—to avoid being exposed, I can’t test it anymore. You can only be more vigilant yourselves.”

“I understand, but there’s no need to worry. Border areas often face all sorts of strange and troublesome enemies. We are better at dealing with these ‘powerful individual soldiers’ than other forces, and we are not afraid of their decapitation tactics.”

“That’s fine,” Yu Sheng said, then suddenly seemed to remember something, “By the way, how much does your Special Operations Bureau know about the ‘Living Saint’?”

“The Living Saint…” Baili Qing slowly began to speak, seemingly lost in thought. “The Special Operations Bureau had indeed heard of this name through some special channels before, but the information we collected was extremely scarce and disorganized. We only knew that they were the top force of the Hermitage, but they seemed to never leave the Hermitage’s territory to carry out missions. Most of the information came from Hermitage followers who were captured by chance—sometimes they would curse people with different beliefs in the name of the Living Saint.”

"Is that all... Alright, we'll figure it out sooner or later anyway," Yu Sheng said, letting out a soft breath. "Then let's find a place to continue hiding and wait for the Dark Star Cruiser that transported the Angel Catalyst to arrive in the Holy Land."

Below the holographic projection, the small golden arc in front of Yu Sheng jumped up again, swaying around the edge of the screen and emitting Eileen's voice: "Goodbye, Iron-faced Poker!"

Before Baili Qing could even respond, the communicator was switched off.

"...I'm not expressionless."

Bai Liqing's lips seemed to twitch by two pixels as she muttered to herself while looking at the now-off holographic projection.

Then she felt the "gaze" coming from the side.

Turning her head, she saw Hong, dressed in a white dress with her long hair trailing on the ground and her eyes closed, standing to the side with a faint smile on her face.

Baili Qing felt a little awkward—after all, she was usually the one "staring" at everyone, and there were hardly any people in the entire border region who dared to meet her gaze. But only in front of this "vampire" who never opened his eyes did she feel the urge to be stared at and scrutinized.

"Why are you looking at me?" she finally couldn't help but ask.

“Interesting,” Hong said slowly.

"Interesting? What's interesting?"

“The way you communicate with them—not just with ‘Yu Sheng,’ but also with the puppet that’s jumping around off-screen—is very interesting,” the smile on his red face seemed to grow even wider. “I haven’t seen you have so many expressions in such a short time in many years. Sometimes I even think that you were a stiff-faced…not cute at all when you hatched from your shell.”

Bai Liqing took a deep breath.

"Don't try to change the facts. You've never even seen what I looked like when I hatched—I was already in the baby dragon stage when you pulled me out!"

Hong didn't say anything, but just continued to smile and "watch" her.

Bai Liqing sighed helplessly and chose to change the subject: "Let's focus on the current situation—the operation plan has changed. We don't need to launch a frontal assault on the Hidden Cult's main force on the border. We'll just use the enemy's stargate to jump into their defenses. Have you ever fought a battle like this before?"

“No, but it sounds interesting,” Red said slowly. “The skills and style of that ‘Angel Hunter’ are truly beyond imagination.”

She turned around and stepped towards a mirror that had appeared out of nowhere, its reflections endlessly interwoven.

"Let's prepare to depart. Although we have control of the Hermitage's stargate, it's still quite a distance to get to Shuji. We mustn't let our fleet delay the entire operation."

(End of this chapter)