Kay seemed truly frightened, taking two steps back and inhaling deeply a few times to calm her nerves. She crossed her hands in a particular posture and respectfully said, "Thank you both for saving me."
Ya Ro nodded with satisfaction, "That’s more like it."
But as soon as Kay lowered her hands, she added, "But I really need to go back."
"What are you going back for?" Li Ming asked directly.
Kay was startled and looked at Li Ming as if she’d seen a ghost, "How did you know?"
"Idiot," Ya Ro said exasperatedly, "you’re so eager to return, it’s probably not because you miss being tortured, right? It’s likely because something important was taken from you by the raiders."
"Your kind of exiled nobility always has a few treasures," he added.
Kay started to speak but stopped, finally admitting helplessly, "Yes, the raiders took something very important to me, so..."
"It’s impossible to go back," Ya Ro shook his head, "We’re lucky to have escaped with our lives, with so many fleets and two B-rank life forms, if you go back, you won’t be able to make it out again."
Hearing this, Kay staggered backwards as if struck, her eyes reddening and tears streaming down her cheeks, "Father, father..."
It couldn’t just be some family heirloom of symbolic significance, Li Ming thought, frowning, but he couldn’t ask.
Seeing this, Ya Ro also became curious, "What exactly did you lose?"
Li Ming raised his eyebrow.
"It’s nothing..." Kay shook her head, not explaining further. After a moment of silence, she requested, "Could you please remove the gene inhibitor from me?"
As Ya Ro was about to act, Li Ming shook his head, "No, we know nothing about your background, personality, or intentions. If we remove the gene inhibitor and you do something detrimental to us, what then?"
Upon hearing this, Ya Ro hesitated as well, Kay did not seem to be in a stable state of mind.
Kay opened her mouth as if to protest but didn’t insist. Now that her life wasn’t in immediate danger, it didn’t really matter much whether the inhibitor was removed or not.
After jumping through space for a while, the spaceship came to a stop. It took about half an hour before Li Ming, with the help of a keycard, finally gained the highest authority over the spaceship.
Once the spaceship restarted, he quickly cut off all remote contacts and positioning data.
While browsing the spaceship’s logs, he also turned on his personal terminal, which he hadn’t dared to bring out on that planet to avoid signal detection.
After turning it on, his brow furrowed. The backend of the star network refreshed with a massive amount of information, and many people had sent him messages.
At the very top was Feder, with over ninety-nine unread messages, mostly communication links along with interspersed text inquiries.
"What happened?" Li Ming briefly scanned the messages, found a small room, and called back.
As soon as the call connected, Feder let loose a barrage of questions, "Where the hell are you...?"
Li Ming disconnected the call with a blank expression. Moments later, Feder called back, and Li Ming didn’t answer.
After another attempt, he finally answered and said flatly, "If you’re going to spew filth again, don’t bother speaking."
Feder was clearly struggling to hold back, and a long silence later, he finally said, "Asimara has gone berserk!"
Even through the screen, Li Ming could sense Feder’s grinding teeth.
"What happened?" Li Ming frowned slightly, thinking of Old Wu, who was still with Asimara.
"I found out not long ago, the reason Asimara was in such a rush to leave was that one of her laboratories was attacked. The attackers were from the Torch, and it seems they stole some critical experimental data," Feder explained quickly.
"So it’s about that," Li Ming’s heart skipped a beat. He silently mourned for Old Wu and at the same time, added Asimara to his must-kill list.
"Bazak, her right-hand man, has betrayed us, and we have yet to locate him..."
"Who?" Li Ming was taken aback.
"Bazak, Asimara’s chief aide," Feder said with suspicion, "You seem quite surprised?"
Not Old Wu? Li Ming pondered.
Seeing no reaction from Li Ming, Feder continued, "Asimara suspects the attack on her lab and Isus’s death are connected, so she’s now taking over the matter, demanding that everyone present must go to the Yitelan Civilization."
"If you don’t go, you’re against her."
That’s too blatantly forceful, Li Ming couldn’t help but lament.
"You’d better hurry back," Feder urged, "she specifically mentioned your name."
"Huh?" Li Ming was surprised, and Feder explained, "Why you left is clear to anyone with eyes. It isn’t just her; the higher-ups are also displeased with you, because you ran away afraid of getting caught in the whirlwind."
"I can’t go back," Li Ming resolutely shook his head and sent a message to Feder, who after a long silence, burst out angrily, "You think you can fool Asima with that? A kidnapping letter?"
Li Ming spoke nonchalantly, "Just give this to her; tell her I’ve been kidnapped and if she’s willing to spend ten billion to ransom me, I’ll come back."
Feder sounded weary, "It’s pointless. I know you’re heading to the Land of Stars, but that place isn’t safe either. The higher-ups have already organized the United Fleet, with more than twenty civilizations responding."
"It’s a massive scale. The Torch Organization’s headquarters is most likely in the Land of Stars. With blood feuds involved, they won’t easily let it go, so why bother?"
"You can’t really become a drifter in interstellar space, can you? Don’t you want to continue evolving?"
The United Fleet? Li Ming wasn’t too surprised and nodded, "Thanks for the heads-up. Keep me informed of any new intelligence in advance."
"I’m not your informant..." Feder raised his voice, but Li Ming had already ended the call.
Yitelan had long harbored grievances against Torch, whether it was using this as an opportunity or truly being outraged, they definitely wanted to eliminate this cancer again; even if it were to revive, they could at least have some peace for a while.