Chapter 279: Trust

With all my defenses shut, I was basically exposing myself bare to the interstellar creature. I could sense a force urging my heart to believe that the interstellar creature would be able to feel my sincerity. Suddenly, I felt a massive paw on my helmet. It was exceptionally heavy. The creature had actually come before me without making a sound.

"Success. This fellow is finally moving," I grew excited.

In the darkness, I could hear it extending the sharp part of its mouth toward me. It seemed to be performing a detailed scan of me. My nervous heart slowly calmed down. In the darkness, I stood straight and allowed the creature to study me for over a minute. Suddenly, two shining purple balls appeared in front of me.

I allowed my eyes to adapt to the level of lighting and looked over. The two purple orbs were actually the creature's eyes. In the darkness, they appeared rather dazzling. The eyes looked like they were shining nets, somewhat similar to the compound eyes possessed by Blue's insects. I could clearly see that within the creature's eye sockets were massive eyeballs that constantly swirled around as if continuously observing me.

Suddenly, the creature stood up on its forelimbs. With a shrill shriek, it lifted its paws with its sharp claws and extended its sharp mouth, assuming a posture that looked like it was about to pounce on me.

For some reason, I felt no fear from its display. I shut my eyes and stayed still, waiting for the attack to drop. I firmly believed that I could conquer the creature. The whistling sound of wind swept down beside my ear, followed by the sound of a paw striking the floor. I opened my eyes and saw the sharp mouth hovering right above my forehead.

"Come. Stab me. Bring it on! I'm waiting!" I roared for no apparent reason.

Upon hearing my voice, the creature's eyes turned even brighter, to the point its entire body was illuminated by the light.

"Come! Stab here if you can!" I provoked while pointing at my forehead.

I believed that when facing an animal, I needed to display a dominating presence. Otherwise, it wouldn't be able to recognize who its master was. The aggressive show of force seemed to have worked, and the creature's eyes suddenly dimmed. The shrieks it was letting out were no longer as ear-piercing.

Abruptly, it lay down on its belly while cooing. I gathered my courage and tried to rub its head to placate it. But the creature instinctively pulled back. I stepped forth and lightly placed my hand on its head. Perhaps sensing that I posed no threat, the creature did not resist this time. Instead, its cooing grew louder.

I lightly stroked its head and hummed a song. I could feel its heartbeat gradually turn smooth while its cooing grew soft as though the creature was getting used to this treatment. I gathered even more courage and gently stroked its body starting from its head. My palm slowly moved away from its head, moving somewhere out of its vision.

The creature turned its head to shoot me a glance before turning away and continuing to relax on the floor. When an animal allowed one to stand outside its vision and touch its body, it meant that one was trusted by the animal.

I rubbed its wings and explored the structure of its back. I braced myself and slowly climbed onto its back. Right between the wings on its back was a spot where it caved in, providing me with a comfortable seat. Perhaps this was something it had inherited from its ancestors.

The creature merely snorted when it felt me climb onto its back. It did not have any other reaction. After hundreds of millions of years, an offspring of the ancient gods' mounts was finally mounted. Pride swelled in my heart at the thought of that.

While I was basking in self-satisfaction, the door opened quickly, and someone with a gun ran into the room. Shocked, the creature bolted up and threw me off its body. Without my shield, the fall dazed me and made my head ache. I even blacked out for a moment.

While dazed, I could hear the whine of the interstellar creature and the shouts of numerous people in the room. Only after a while did I recognize Zhang Bao'er's voice calling my name. I moved my body and slowly got back on my feet.

"He's alive! Good! He's alive!" Zhang Bao'er cried out in joy.

"Canyue, how are you? Retreat quickly! It's dangerous there!" Zhang Xingxing said with concern.

"Why don't we push in and grab him with force?" Zhang Bao'er gave another one of his rotten ideas.

I shook my head, finally regaining clarity.

"Bao'er, what are you doing? I was on the verge of success! Your sudden entry almost caused me to be knocked unconscious," I said angrily.

"Canyue, you can't blame me. You were the one who set the limit to 15 minutes. When the time was up, the captain immediately had us come for you," said Zhang Bao'er.

I was out of words. Indeed, I was the one who had set a limit of 15 minutes. It would seem that I had no one to blame but myself.

"It's my fault for forgetting the time," I muttered.

"Superior, are you really able to control it?" asked Baobao in stupefaction.

I did not answer. Rather, I approached the roaring interstellar creature and patted its back. Slowly, it calmed down and lay back down on the floor.

"Give me its food," I said to Lin Feixue.

Lin Feixue was quite the gutsy one. When he heard my request, he walked over with the food. Surprisingly, the interstellar creature let him approach as well.

I took the food and fed it to the creature. I stroked its big head and muttered into its ear, "Be good and take a rest. I'll look for you later."

The interstellar creature made a cooing sound, expressing its agreement. I then followed Lin Feixue out of the room. A series of stunned looks welcomed me.

"Canyue, how did you conquer it? Tell me," said Zhang Bao'er impatiently.

"I did nothing special. I merely had a feeling that it had selected me. In fact, it had selected me the moment it had first cried for our help," I explained.

"What a lucky bastard. Now you have another flying mount on top of Blueflash. So what name are you giving it?" asked Zhang Bao'er enviously.

"What's to think about it? Since it's a small animal, just call it Duck," Domo was being as unhelpful as ever.

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"Duck is a bad name. How about Zuanzuan?" asked Old Du.

"No, that's not auspicious." Zhang Bao'er rejected Old Du's attempt to name the interstellar creature after his dead flying fish.

"I think it should have a bold name," said Old Du.

"Let me give it a name. Nyx," said Zhang Xingxing.

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"Nyx? Why that name?" I asked.

"An ancient species like this originated from the darkness and lived in the darkness yet also brought hope to us. On Blue, Nyx is the goddess of the night and is one of the five greatest deities of creation. This name is fitting for the history behind Akko's interstellar creatures," said Zhang Xingxing.

"But how do you know it's female?" questioned Domo, being all nit-picky as usual.

"If the captain says it's female, then it's female. Would it even select Canyue if it weren't? A male would have asked for my help instead," said Kelly in support of Zhang Xingxing.

Naturally, Domo wasn't a match for the eloquent Kelly, so he hurriedly shut his mouth.

"Alright, then. We'll call it Nyx," I agreed.

"Superior, we now have both an interstellar creature and a rider. Do we start the mission immediately?" asked Lin Feixue, reminding everyone of the task at hand.

Zhang Xingxing took a glance at the hellish world outside before looking at me for my opinion.

"We don't have much time. Permission to immediately leave with Nyx?" I asked loudly.

"Canyue, the weather is too nasty. With how high we are, the storm will only be more intense. Why don't you wait a few days for the storm to calm a bit?" asked Kelly.

"Any minute we wait will add more danger for Prince Arude. We must seize any second we can and move out immediately," I said firmly.

"Prepare to leave. The mission will start in 30 minutes. Canyue and Nyx will leave and search for survivors. Everyone else, be on standby," commanded Zhang Xingxing.

Everyone got to work.

"Take it with you. With Bulu by your side, I will worry less," said Zhang Xingxing as she handed me the backpack Bulu was staying in.

I looked at Bulu sleeping before putting the backpack on my back.

"Return safely! This is an order!" said Zhang Xingxing sternly.

I nodded with a smile on my face. While everyone was busy making last-minute preparations, I decided to take the chance to visit Prince Toruse. The prince was kept in a small holding cell. He had remained silent ever since he was imprisoned. I had the soldier who was keeping watch open the door, and I entered and sat down facing the prince. The prince lifted his head to look at me, but he was still completely silent.

"Prince, why did you do something so foolish? Detaining and harming your comrades-in-arms?" I asked in my attempt to break the silence.

The prince continued to silently stare at me.

"I'm leaving on a difficult mission soon. I don't even know if I'll return alive. With the little time I have left, I had decided to meet you, hoping that you could return from the wrong path you had taken," I said.

Finally, a complicated look flickered across the prince's face. After a while, he said, "Canyue, you won't understand how it feels when you're a legitimate prince born to the king's main wife yet are forced to lie low and suffer for many years, only to become second in line to the throne behind your younger brother."

"I know how things are always excessively complicated in a royal family. I also know the concept of loneliness at the top. However, there is no lack of sage kings in history. No matter what the sage kings had done in the past, they had ultimately returned to the proper path. Dishonest practices would never be accepted as the right thing to do. You should convince King Xido with incredible feats and accomplishments, not letting something like a line of succession consume you," I said.

"But the royal will can't be altered," said the prince indignantly.

"Even if you're not the king, can't you still make a contribution to the people and kingdom that is big enough for you to leave your mark in the annals of history? Is it that bad?" I continued, "Is the throne really so comfortable? Has it ever crossed your mind to perhaps pioneer a new frontier in the universe and create a kingdom of your own?" 

My words seemed to move the prince. True, the universe was massive, and there were countless planets out there. What was the point of being stubbornly attached to Akko? I could see that hope was finally returning to the prince's eyes. He opened his mouth in preparation to say something to me.

"Canyue, it's time," Lin Feixue reminded from outside the cell.

I couldn't delay the mission, so I stood up and said to the prince, "Think over what I told you. If I manage to return alive, I'll come visit you again."

"Be safe," said Prince Toruse, finally showing some concern for me.

I was gratified to hear his concern. I nodded at him before I turned and left.

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