Chapter 41: Chapter 41: Lin Mo Comes Up Empty

On the very day Ning Xuan was taken to Extreme Cold City by Chen Nan, Lin Mo arrived at D618 Star aboard a Starship.

"General, we’ve arrived!" Hu Xia said, looking at the barren planet outside. He’d been here once before with the General when they brought Miss Ning home.

"Mhm." Lin Mo thought of the girl with black hair and black eyes, as delicate and beautiful as a flower, and his heart couldn’t help but leap with excitement and anticipation.

"We’re not in the military right now. Don’t call me General!"

"Yes, Young Master!" Hu Xia cleverly switched his form of address. He was a servant of the Lin Family and had been with Lin Mo since childhood. Lin Mo had originally wanted to come alone, but his family was worried, so he had no choice but to let Hu Xia tag along.

Lin Mo straightened his clothes, and after confirming nothing was out of place, he descended from the Starship and set foot on the soil of D618 Star.

When Lin Mo received the matching notification from the main brain, the Level difference between them was too great. On top of that, his Mutated Degree was too high at the time. Fearing he would bring danger to Ning Xuan, he temporarily hid his personal information. He returned to Five Maples City and took the Special Gene Mutation Inhibitor three times before finally bringing his Mutated Degree down.

By the time his condition stabilized, two months had passed since the main brain had sent the matching notification. In the meantime, Ning Xuan’s Spiritual Power Value, upon being re-tested, had shot up from 56 to 875 in less than a month—an increase of nearly twenty-fold. Lin Mo couldn’t sit still for a minute after seeing that number. If he could reach her before she advanced to B-level, he could still claim he had been delayed by business. After all, while there was a rule about staying by the Contractor’s side within a year of the Contract, it was normal for a Contractor to have other matters to handle first.

’But if I wait until Ning Xuan advances to B-level, my hidden information will be exposed. That... will be hard to explain!’

Relying on his memory from his last visit, Lin Mo found Ning Xuan’s house. When he knocked, the housekeeping robot replied that the master of the house was out.

Next, Lin Mo went to her school, using the address from Ning Xuan’s personal file. Just as he arrived, he saw her file update again: her Spiritual Power Value had climbed from 875 to 999. The threshold for B-level spiritual power was 1000! That meant Ning Xuan could break through to B-level at any moment. ’This won’t do!’ In his agitation, Lin Mo immediately disabled the High-level Spirit Controller protection, making his personal information available to Ning Xuan.

He then went to the school to wait for Ning Xuan. ’She just had her Spiritual Power Value re-tested, so she should be heading back to school for class any minute now, right?’

However, Lin Mo waited for an hour with no sign of her. Growing impatient, he took a Flying Car to search for her. When he reached the information center, a staff member said that Miss Ning had left over an hour ago!

Lin Mo went back to Ning Xuan’s house, but it was empty. He returned to the school, this time finding Dean Wang. The dean told him that Ning Xuan was supposed to come to class today, but she had just sent a message requesting another month of leave.

Lin Mo knew something was wrong. ’If she said she was coming back to class, why would she suddenly request leave without even giving a reason?’

Lin Mo immediately began investigating Ning Xuan’s whereabouts. Since he had disabled his high-level protection, a contractual relationship with Ning Xuan had been formed. He could use this relationship to request the local investigation department to track her down.

However, the investigation revealed that after leaving the testing center, Ning Xuan and her other Contractor had taken a Flying Car into an uninhabited region not covered by the Star Network, and they had never returned!

’An uninhabited region? Beyond that vast expanse lies the Mysterious Barrier Land. How could that Chen Nan take her to such a dangerous place during her awakening period!’ Lin Mo couldn’t quite describe the feeling in his heart. He never expected Ning Xuan to already have a Contractor by her side. From his end, he could only see the other Contractor’s name and no other details, but he knew of Chen Nan from the Federal First Corps. He wasn’t some prodigy, but he wasn’t a complete unknown either; they had seen each other at the annual inter-corps martial arts competitions.

The revelation that Chen Nan was also Ning Xuan’s Contractor, and had been by her side all this time, felt like weeds sprouting in Lin Mo’s heart, leaving a prickly, stifling feeling in his chest.

As a Lieutenant General Officer in the First Legion, Chen Nan should have had no connection to Ning Xuan, who lived on D618 Star. There was only one way he could have become her Contractor: just like with him, it had to be the result of the main brain’s matchmaking. That meant Chen Nan’s genetic compatibility with Ning Xuan was also above 90 percent.

’I was the one who met Ning Xuan first! I saved her from the B-level Illusion Barrier Land and personally took her home. How could Chen Nan beat me to it when we had such a wonderful, fated connection?’

Lin Mo was incredibly frustrated with himself. ’Why did I hide my information? Even though my condition at the time truly wasn’t suitable for staying by the Contractor’s side, I still missed the chance to at least meet her first.’

But at the time, he had been shocked, shy, and at a complete loss. Then, out of careful consideration for such a major life event, he had chosen to hide his identity.

During those two months of treatment, he often found himself thinking of the girl lying amongst the vines and slowly came to understand his own heart. It was love at first sight. Combined with their perfect compatibility, what did it matter if her Level was a bit low?

Once Lin Mo was sure of his feelings, he fully committed to his treatment. The moment his Mutated Degree was under control, he rushed over without a moment’s rest, only to find that someone else had already beaten him to his Contractor!

When Lin Mo first learned that Ning Xuan had disappeared into the uninhabited region, he hadn’t thought much of it. For a Double S-Class like Chen Nan, the uninhabited regions and the Mysterious Barrier Land on a D-level Star were not dangerous. If he dared to take the Contractor out, he must have been confident he could bring her back safely.

Lin Mo waited for two days, but when Ning Xuan still didn’t return, he felt something was wrong. He went to the investigation department and looked into the events surrounding Ning Xuan over the past two months. He discovered that the Slaughter Pavilion had sent an assassin to kill her. That assassin’s Superpower Body was dead, but the man himself was still alive. However, after a harsh interrogation by the investigation department, he had gone insane. Now he just screamed day after day for the Ning Xuan who had stuck him with needles to save him, insisting that she could definitely repair his Superpower Body.

If Ning Xuan had been there, she would have been astonished. After all, the acupuncture technique she used on the assassin was meant to stimulate the body’s latent potential and temporarily cling to life. Normally, after receiving this set of needles, even a dying person could be vigorous and full of life for a few days—but only a few. Stimulating one’s potential was equivalent to overdrafting their Life Force. According to her past experience, the longest anyone had ever held on was ten days before their Life Force was depleted and they died.

And yet this assassin had now lived for over twenty days with no sign of dying.

In the dark cells of the investigation department, Lin Mo came face to face with the crazed Slaughter Pavilion assassin.