Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1679: Chapter 29: Asla White Kirin

Undersea City, Magic Energy Research Institute, First Institute.

The Gendarme Team had now thoroughly searched every inch of the First Institute, inside and out, yet still hadn’t gained anything—only they also hadn’t left, and continued to guard every passageway of the First Institute—even the drainage system below, and even the ventilation ducts, were not spared.

In the room where Captain Justin and his party had last appeared, staff members were cleaning up the remains.

At most, what they had found here were some belongings the intruder had left behind.

The Gendarme Team had formed a conjecture: after Captain Justin and his group were trapped and their resistance failed, they seemed to have ultimately taken a very radical measure, creating a gigantic fleshy tumor, intending to perish together with their enemy.

“What on earth is this thing, able to devour people and grow stronger…”

“It’s something from the surface, you know that… the world above has already been polluted, it’s simply not suitable for us to live in. These surface people now, they probably only retain a human appearance, but in essence, perhaps have already become monsters!”

“Ah, seriously… the Undersea City is still the best. I really want to go watch the Flywheel Grand Prix. Seeing all this blood here, I’m getting a little excited.”

“If we hurry it up, we might even catch the final execution moment!”

They chatted about something up on the ground… then their movements grew faster and faster, and they finished cleaning everything here ahead of schedule before leaving.

But what they hadn’t paid attention to was that, in the room, a section of the metal wall suddenly came loose… it turned into a puddle of viscous liquid, and then began to move along the cracks of the room.

Not long after, this viscous puddle of liquid found a larger fissure and slowly seeped into it… no one knew how much time passed before the liquid finally seeped down into some place beneath the First Institute.

Drop by drop, the liquid dripped onto the floor, gradually pooling and then slowly molding itself into shape—it ultimately restored the appearance of Captain Justin.

This was Captain Justin’s greatest secret—truth was, he was not human, but a very special kind of Devils living within the Non-Human Domain.

Its original body had once been just a lump of rotten mud, until a certain magician in The Magician Association, who delighted in bizarre research, captured it and others of its kind and conducted some secret experiments.

In the end, it gained the ability to transform. Later, when it found an opportunity and killed that magician, it escaped from the Non-Human Domain and entered the present world.

Decades ago, it was subdued by President Charles, and then, under the identity of Justin, climbed step by step within the Black Religious Congregation, eventually becoming one of its top leaders.

…

Captain Justin now let out a long breath, his gaze sweeping around… there was not the slightest joy on his face at having escaped disaster; instead, it looked extremely ugly.

Louis XXXIX had outplayed him… the Sapphire out in the deep sea was most likely already secretly brought down and taken over by the Undersea City’s military.

Originally, if not for this trip to the Undersea City, Captain Justin would at least still have a trump card like the Sapphire at hand, able to hide at any time in the ocean… but now he had been thoroughly reduced to a Single Commander.

Captain Justin was unwilling to lose everything just like that… his eyes gradually grew darker.

“I didn’t expect there to be such a place beneath the First Institute…” Captain Justin now looked doubtfully at the passages before and behind him, ransacking his memory—this place was clearly not on the map described by that subordinate of his who possessed a scouting superpower.

Moreover, the place he was currently in did not look like it had been sealed up for long—clearly, people had been moving through here quite regularly.

After a short while, Captain Justin heard footsteps.

He quickly plastered himself against the wall, his body instantly turning transparent.

Two men wearing researcher’s uniforms came slowly along… they were discussing something. Captain Justin immediately listened carefully.

“It’s already been so many days, and we still can’t figure out the structure of that thing. This won’t do, the research has completely hit a bottleneck. The data we have is just far too little…”

“This is research the Emperor has ordered must yield results; no matter how little data there is, we cannot give up.”

“But… those strange patterns, and that inexplicable way it uses energy to communicate, it’s really… I keep feeling that thing has a mind of its own.”

The voices of the two researchers gradually receded… only after they left Captain Justin’s range did he reveal himself again.

A sharp glint suddenly flashed in Captain Justin’s eyes.

From the conversation of these two researchers, Captain Justin quickly inferred a few things—this secret lab hidden beneath the First Institute was currently researching something that even the Undersea City Emperor attached great importance to.

And they still had yet to achieve any results… moreover, that thing might well be something of tremendous power.

Something even Louis XXXIX cared about… was very likely some kind of powerful weapon!

A sly smile suddenly spread across Captain Justin’s face.

His body faded once more, until it was completely transparent, and then he drifted after the two researchers.

Captain Justin quickly caught up with the two researchers and quietly shadowed them from behind all the way—not long after, the two reached a Gate.

Access was verified, and the Gate opened.

Captain Justin immediately peered inside without a word.

In a vast circular Space, there were at least more than thirty researchers at work… instruments whose names Captain Justin couldn’t even pronounce were crammed into every corner.

And right at the very center of this circular lab, amidst the researchers and instruments, Captain Justin actually saw a sword.

A sword!

It was not one of those Western rapiers Captain Justin had seen before… it looked more like one of those bronze weapons commonly found in the eastern country.

Just such a Longsword was at this moment hanging from a machine’s base, enclosed within a deep blue light-shield emitted by that base.

“So this is what they’re researching… a sword?” Captain Justin shook off his brief daze and came back to his senses.

He clenched his teeth, looked around, and found that there wasn’t a single Magic Energy Warrior here besides the researchers… Captain Justin steeled himself and once again fixed his gaze on the trapped Longsword.

Perhaps… this would be his chance to turn the tables against the wind!

With that thought, Captain Justin stepped through the Gate without hesitation and entered this secret lab—but what he hadn’t expected was that the very instant he set foot in the lab, a shrill alarm suddenly blared throughout the entire room.

“Intruder—!!”

In an instant, the sole Gate slammed shut, and at the same time, the walls of the lab split open as two-meter-tall, grayish-white mannequins with surgical-white bodies were dropped down one after another.

Captain Justin drew in a sharp breath of cold air, feeling as if he’d been screwed over by the Undersea City Emperor yet again; his expression was hideous.

Fortunately, these puppet guards seemed not to have detected his presence… perhaps it was only when he passed through the Gate that something picked him up.

After all, his ability was merely deceptive; it could not erase the fact that he existed as a living organism.

“There’s still a chance…” Captain Justin quietly moved closer to the place in the center where the Longsword was stored.

…

…

In the Arena, out on the track, the roar of the crowd was still deafening.

The host’s high-pitched voice rang out once more, and the Magic Energy Glamour light screen again converged on Lei Yaz.

“He’s appeared! He’s finally stepped out of the temporary supply point! This youth who has squandered so much time on the track, he seems to have found his resolve once more! I think we should give him our warmest applause! This is a brave young man! Everyone, do you want to see his blood splatter across the track at the end, despair in his eyes, or see him reach the very summit!”

“Die! Die! Die! Die!”

The chant was so perfectly in unison… not just inside the venue, but outside as well, as if the entire Undersea City were at that moment shouting the same word.

Millions of people… the Undersea City, a population of nine million!

Even the track itself seemed to shudder at this moment, as if resonating with the sound… Lei Yaz only felt as if his whole body had been filled with mud, growing heavier and heavier, and a wave of dizziness even made him start to lose his sense of balance.

“It’s getting thicker and thicker…” He lowered his head, ignoring the commentator’s teasing and forcing himself not to listen to the voices of the crowd, muttering, “It’s practically… practically like falling into a Sea Demon Clan nest.”

The Flywheel Asla finally slowly pulled out of the temporary supply point and once again entered the race track.

A road of blood, severed limbs, Flywheel wreckage, all laid out right in front of Lei Yaz… Lei Yaz gradually felt a surge of excitement rising within him.

It was as if something inside his body was pushing him to resist this nerve-invading excitement, forcing him to maintain a strange calm.

In an instant, his mind became incredibly clear—he jerked his head up, staring at the highest point, at that black orb hanging in the sky higher than any execution platform, and a deep voice seemed to echo in his head.

Resist it.

Destroy it.

At this moment, Lei Yaz even forgot why he’d stepped onto this track; the only thought in his heart was simply how to destroy that black orb.

It felt innate, like instinct… a natural enmity that didn’t need any reason.

Lei Yaz took a deep breath, then suddenly raised the water bottle in his hand, letting the water pour down and wash over his face… Then he directly began to ramp up Asla’s power.

But he didn’t let it launch, just kept it where it was.

The power was climbing madly… the scale on the dashboard shooting upward.

One notch, two notches… three notches.

Asla still didn’t move, but under that intense power, the hovering system had already accumulated a massive amount of energy… a surge of white heat was now erupting from Asla’s body.

Suddenly, a faint sapphire-blue gleam quietly floated across Lei Yaz’s pupils.

His thoughts focused to an extreme, and his brain, in that instant, calculated the optimal route… On the track ahead, the Flywheels of the third echelon and second echelon, their paths all unfolded within his field of vision.

The commentator’s voice rang out again.

“He still hasn’t moved! What is he doing? Is he planning to stockpile power? Oh, that is not a smart move; that will only cause the Flywheel to overload and collapse! My god, he might not even last until the next temporary supply point before he blows up on the spot! I swear I can already see this brave young man torn into shreds of mangled flesh! My god, now I’m getting excited too!”

Out on the track.

Ke Duojin, currently locked in a bitter struggle in the second echelon, frowned as he looked up at the giant display screen—right now he was controlling the terrifying weaponry of the Golden Behemoth, sawing a Flywheel ahead of him clean in half.

The terrified screams from the other side gave Ke Duojin a kind of uncontrollable thrill deep in his body—destruction, slaughter, like a poison running with his blood, tugging at every nerve in his body.

“Lei Yaz! Lei Yaz… why aren’t you coming up here! Face me and settle this, once and for all!” Ke Duojin’s gaze was turning blood-red. “Ah… I’ll wait for you right here! Wait for you!”

The Golden Behemoth suddenly came to a halt, then spread open its eight massive mechanical arms, bracing and digging into the track like a colossal spider, swallowing each of the Flywheels charging up from behind one by one.

Just then, a Flywheel wreathed completely in terrifying arcs of electricity came barreling down the track at full speed.

Louis XXXIX!

His Flywheel now… rather than calling it a Flywheel, it was more like a Beast clad in a monstrous shell… like a Flying Dragon wrapped all over in black scales!

Its razor-sharp wings easily shredded the Flywheels blocking its path—finally, the Emperor’s Black Flying Dragon arrived before the Golden Beast.

“Another brave young man! I like your courage! Tell me your name, young warrior!” A faint smile appeared on Louis XXXIX’s face.

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!” Ke Duojin’s eyes were bloodshot. “Even if you are the Emperor! I’ll still defeat you… knock you down!”

“Praise-worthy.” A glint of appreciation flashed through Louis XXXIX’s eyes.

As he spoke, the Black Flying Dragon beneath the Emperor let out a roar and slammed straight into Ke Duojin’s Golden Beast, its razor fangs tearing ruthlessly into the Golden Beast’s body.

“I won’t lose… I’m still waiting here for Lei Yaz, ahhh—! To defeat him with my own hands—!”

Ke Duojin thrust both his hands into a spherical controller on the Golden Beast’s control panel… instantly, the Golden Beast’s power started skyrocketing.

But the Black Flying Dragon at that moment lunged and bit down on the Golden Beast’s core armor, gulping down the Golden Beast’s Magic Energy core in huge mouthfuls.

Ke Duojin blanked out.

“Or leave this track—I grant you permission to join my Honor Guard, brave youth.” The Emperor now looked down from on high. After devouring the Golden Behemoth’s core, the Black Flying Dragon beneath him began to change yet again… evolve.

“I…”

The Golden Beast had already lost its power and now, like a heap of scrap metal, collapsed to its knees on the track… Ke Duojin stared blankly at the Emperor taking off once more, as if struggling to say something.

Just then, a blinding light shot straight into the sky, illuminating the entire track.

Instinctively, Ke Duojin looked to the huge display screen beside the track.

The entire screen was now filled with Lei Yaz’s image.

No one knew when it started, but Lei Yaz’s Flywheel Asla had begun to undergo some kind of transformation too!

Its nose section was now popping open, shifting shape, turning into what looked like the head of some kind of Beast.

On both sides of its body, two blade-like wings shot out like edges of a blade… the blade wings formed a skeletal frame, then unfurled into layers of white light wings.

Mecha limbs had appeared… then, starting from the head, Asla was shrouded in a coat of immaculate white radiance.

…

Lei Yaz was now staring dumbly at his own hand—gripped there was a crystal box.

The crystal box that big sister had given him—when Asla’s power scale rose to the fifth notch, Lei Yaz had shoved the crystal box into it without a moment’s hesitation.

Now, seeing Asla’s miraculous transformation, something stirred in Lei Yaz’s heart; he whispered softly, “Asla… no! From now on you’re Asla White Kirin!”

As if in answer to Lei Yaz’s voice, the Flywheel’s new form suddenly spread its giant light wings… and then let out a roar.

The air trembled; a white streak of light flashed along the track, tearing through the third echelon and sweeping every Flywheel in the third echelon aside… and it lunged straight for the second echelon.

…

“Asla White Kirin?” In the temporary supply point, the Maid lightly stroked her cheek. “The name’s not bad… I was actually going to call it White God.”

Boss Luo glanced over from the side, then suddenly asked curiously, “You were working overtime last night.”

“I did a bit of tweaking.” The Maid looked back with a smile. “I used some technology from another mainland… a Gigan world. The compatibility between their tech and Magic Energy Technology was unexpectedly high, and then I just couldn’t stop myself.”

Couldn’t stop.

This was already way beyond… “a bit,” wasn’t it?

Boss Luo shook his head—yet his gaze settled on that black orb in the sky, as if pondering something.

#######

PS1: The design of Asla White Kirin is based on B’TX from Steel God Soldier.

PS2: Same as always.