Chapter 72 - Hermit (1/2)
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Old K stood by the window, watching that man named Mountain Hawk depart onboard his spaceship before he returned to the sofa and took that brown leather pouch in hand. He loosened the drawstrings and looked at the content for some time.
Xia Fei was positioned behind the old man, so he was unable to make out what was inside the pouch.
Standing up and hesitating for a while, Old K walked toward an oil painting in the room. It was a painting of a half-naked woman with ample bosoms and tempting snow-white skin.
He pressed a button cleverly concealed in its picture frame, and the painting suddenly popped open to reveal a hidden safe behind.
Only after placing his right hand on the palm-print identification and a red beam, which had shot out, scanning his irises did the safe open for him.
‘With such strict security systems in place, I wonder if it’s something very valuable…’ Xia Fei muttered to himself.
Old K then headed to the bathroom after closing the safe. It did not take long for the sound of running water to be heard from inside.
Xia Fei did not delay. Immediately opening the doors to the dumbwaiter, he shifted to the side of the bathroom and plastered his body as close as possible to the wall.
The bathroom door was opaque, so Xia Fei could clearly see a figure lying in the bathtub inside, face tilted up with a hot towel covering his face.
Xia Fei smiled. He lightly pulled the door open and walked in, placing his Chasing Light under Old K’s neck while using his left hand to remove the towel covering his face.
Unexpectedly, Old K’s face was very composed, his squinting eyes not revealing a hint of nervousness in the slightest.
Xia Fei could not help but respect his calmness. The old coot truly lived up to his name as a notorious ex-pirate for him not to show any reaction despite his circumstance.
He glanced at Xia Fei and asked, “Did Mountain Hawk send you here?”
Xia Fei shook his head lightly. “Nope. It was Inert Star that sent me here.”
“Inert Star?” Old K was baffled, his forehead forming distinct ridges.
He tried to recall who that was yet could simply not. He sighed in the end. “Sorry, I’ve offended too many people in my life. It’s impossible for me to remember all of them.”
“Indeed, you won’t be able to remember, for Inert Star is just a dog,” spat Xia Fei icily.
Old K’s eyes exuded a sharp glint that drastically contrasted his age. “You’re killing me because of a dog?”
His tone was one of skepticism and indignation with his voice betraying a slight tremor. “This is ridiculous. I’ve lived for seventy years and been in every sort of situation, yet I’m actually about to die because of a dog. I simply refuse to believe it.”
Xia Fei very carefully appreciated the expression on Old K’s face. “You don’t have to believe it, but I’m truly out to kill you now because of a dog named Inert Star.”
Old K heard Xia Fei’s words and felt that he did not appear to be lying. His wrinkled face went red, then white, before finally settling to green.
A notorious pirate ended up dying because of a dog. Such an ending did not settle well with the prideful Old K.
“There’s something very precious in my safe. Will it be enough to exchange for my life?” asked Old K in a voice that betrayed his age.
“Your life isn’t worth anything—just a dollar at most.” Xia Fei beamed. “The thing is that Inert Star’s life was very precious.”
Old K gritted his teeth, lifting his left hand to show a large spatial ring. “And if we add this in?”
A spatial ring needed a spatial stone inlaid as a medium to connect to the second-dimensional space, and usually, the larger it was meant the purer the rock, which in turn meant it had a stronger link to the second-dimensional space.
After all, anyone who would attempt to access the second-dimensional space needed a spatial stone to create the passage and make the connection. If the passage was unstable, it could very well spell the loss, damage, or doom for an item in the middle transit.
Old K’s spatial ring was evidently far larger than the average spatial rings; its green luster was more exquisite and purer with no trace of other colors.
“This ring has over twenty cubic square meters of space. I do believe that you know just how expensive this is.” Old K elaborated this with some forlorn desperation.
The price of a spatial ring would usually increase exponentially with every increase in size. A ring with twenty cubic square meters of space would be worth forty, and considering that there would be a seventy-five percent premium for rings over ten cubic square meters, that essentially meant that just the ring alone was worth over seventy billion star coins!
Such a large sum was pretty much enough to buy the whole of Australia, yet Xia Fei remained as expressionless as ever, though he had already been quite surprised upon learning the ring’s massive storage space.
“Alright. I promise not to kill you off too painfully,” said Xia Fei very readily.
That was when Old K finally understood that there was no escaping this predicament. He shut his eyes and tried to pretend to be calm, but that heaving chest betrayed his fear in the face of death.
*Shing!*
Chasing Light created a lone flash of cyan, which was aimed right at Old K’s neck, slicing off his arteries and windpipe in one motion.
Fresh blood flowed from the wound and into the bathtub, dyeing this clear bathwater red. Old K shuddered for but a moment before breathing his last.
Xia Fei had just retrieved the spatial ring from the old man’s hand when he heard a voice coming from downstairs. “Old K? Old K? The control tower said that Mountain Hawk is turning back. Do you wish to see him?”
Xia Fei furrowed his brows, kept the ring, and quickly walked out of the bathroom, choosing to hide behind a row of bookcases.
The man downstairs shouted twice, and when he did not get a reply, he gingerly pushed the door open and entered. The blond man from before was standing to the front with the short-haired bodyguard right behind him.