In a drowsy state, a slight tingling sensation emanated from his forearm.
It was the pain of a needle piercing the skin.
The pain gradually brought Yu Bai's consciousness back, and his nerves tightened. His eyelids, however, remained heavy, and after what seemed like an eternity, he barely managed to open his eyes.
The world before him was still somewhat blurry, but he could distinguish that he was lying in a large room. A needle was inserted into the area on his left forearm that was tingling, and as he moved his gaze upwards, he saw a bag of intravenous fluids hanging high above his bed.
Transparent liquid was silently flowing into his body through the thin tube.
This scene instantly triggered many unpleasant memories. Almost reflexively, Yu Bai wanted to pull out the needle. It was only then that he realized his right hand was held in place by a metal ring, secured to the other side of the bed. As he attempted to move, the metal chain restricting his movements made a few faint sounds.
Biting his tongue, Yu Bai sat up.
There was a faint residue of a familiar spiritual fluctuation in the air. Although he didn't understand why this person had appeared on Tarl Star at this time, Yu Bai was certain that this was the room of the man he had encountered in the alley.
For now, he was safe...
With that thought in mind, Yu Bai raised his eyes, and a transparent ripple spread out from him, expanding rapidly in all directions, centered around him.
Silent and unobtrusive.
As his spiritual power spread, the terrain around him gradually formed a complete image in Yu Bai's mind.
It was approaching midnight, and the surroundings were exceptionally quiet.
The room he was in was a suite, and at the moment, he was the only one in it. Outside the door, two robots and a cart had just passed by in the corridor.
After cautiously inspecting the area and not detecting any immediate threats, Yu Bai's tense nerves began to relax slightly.
However, just as he was about to retract his spiritual power, the metal door at the end of the corridor suddenly slid open on both sides.
"Are you sure the signal is here?" Scarface furrowed his brow. "This entire section is reserved for high-level VIPs."
"It's in this direction." The person next to him held a receiver in his hand, and the screen was currently displaying a faint green light. "But... there are too many signal jammers here. I can't pinpoint his exact floor."
"The auction is about to begin, and we still need to get approval for the search from the boss..."
Because he had retracted his spiritual power in time, Yu Bai didn't catch the rest of the conversation.
In fact, he hadn't completely understood the parts he did hear. In his previous life, he had wanted to learn human language, but it seemed that those who were responsible for him had quickly realized his intentions. Shortly after he developed this idea, they stopped communicating verbally in front of him.
Moreover, using his spiritual power forcefully on an unconscious brain had made him dizzy again, so he only caught a few words:
Auction, signal, jammer, location, search.
These were the words he could understand.
His right hand was still shackled, and Yu Bai lowered his head to examine the structure of the handcuffs. Then he picked up the needle that had just been removed, applied a little force to bend it into an arc, and aimed one end at a gap in the metal handcuffs. He gently pushed forward and quickly turned it several times.
With a subtle clicking sound, the handcuffs were opened.
Afterward, slender and fair fingers adeptly touched the wrists, shoulders, sternum, abdomen, ankles...
Yu Bai patiently checked the areas where tracking devices had once been injected. Finally, on the small, imperceptible bump just above his last cervical vertebra, he found the tracker.
Having located the tracker, Yu Bai got off the bed and walked to the room's exit, leaning against the wall.
The suite's furnishings were not elaborate. Inside, there was a bedroom, and outside, a dining table.
Surveying his surroundings, Yu Bai picked up a small dining knife from the table. He gestured towards the inconspicuous bump on the back of his neck.
Without any other suitable tools, he clenched his teeth and forcefully cut open a small piece of skin.
The dining knife wasn't sharp, so the incision wasn't neat. Fresh blood immediately flowed from the wound, leaving a winding crimson mark on his porcelain skin.
Intense pain accompanied him, but even as he felt like his entire body was trembling with pain, there was no wavering in his eyes.
In a short time, he held the tracker, still stained with blood, in his hand.
When the dining knife dropped onto the carpet, it made only a soft muffled sound.
Enduring the most intense wave of pain, the little mermaid used his other hand to touch the device on his ear and glanced to the side.
There was a full-length mirror by the door, and in it, his silver long hair had been replaced with short black hair, and his features were completely different from his original appearance.
Only the colour of his eyes remained unchanged, still a clear sea blue.
This face was very unfamiliar, yet very familiar.
In his previous life, when he left the laboratory, the man had put on an identity-changing device for him, and the randomly generated features were exactly the same as they were now.
But now, the timeline had gone back three years, and he still didn't know the man.
Although Yu Bai was not aware that the situation at the moment didn't leave him much time for thinking. Why had they appeared on Tarl Star at this time...
But the people from the auction house were still looking for him, and based on his memories from his previous life, they were likely to thoroughly search all the rooms on these floors.
For whatever reason, he absolutely couldn't let the auction house people know that he had saved himself.
With that thought in mind, Yu Bai's gaze fell to the tracker he held tightly. He adjusted the identity-changing device to ensure it wouldn't fall off, then gently pushed the door open and entered the long corridor.
The corridor was covered in thick carpet, and in the dim and ambiguous lighting, the carpet exhibited a suppressed deep red colour, making no sound when walked upon.
His two legs were still a bit weak, and his ankles were still tingling. Yu Bai lowered his head and began to use his spiritual power to scout the path.
A dull pain radiated from the neck wound, and he carefully avoided the surveillance cameras hanging from the ceiling, making sure to stay in the shadows and proceed cautiously.
However, even with his precautions, he quickly encountered an obstacle.
The elevator door at the end of the corridor suddenly opened, and several people walked out, whom Yu Bai recognized—the leader was Scarface.
Fortunately, it seemed that they hadn't noticed the little mermaid on this side of the corner. They looked around and, after confirming that there were no other guests, they opened the nearest room door.
...Just a moment ago, they were clearly at the other end of the corridor.
While carefully stepping back, Yu Bai couldn't help but furrow his brow.
What should he do now?
In a VIP suite on the second floor of the auction venue.
In front of Imperial Marshal Fu Linyuan, the screen displayed the auction item descriptions for tonight.
In front of him was a large floor-to-ceiling window, offering a clear view of the auction exhibition platform below and the seats on the first floor.
From precious gemstones to illicit drugs, and even some unusual gadgets, tonight's auction items were diverse, with a wide range of prices.
However, the most attention-grabbing item was the last one listed on the introduction sheet.
The sea.
A sea that could heal spiritual trauma.
Seas were generally low in intelligence, not much different from beasts on land, but they had extremely ferocious temperaments, were easily provoked, and had high levels of aggression.
Most importantly, it was very difficult for humans to successfully capture seas. Once they realized their freedom was restricted, seas would go berserk, attacking everything around them indiscriminately until they exhausted themselves and perished.
Yet, paradoxically, these fierce creatures had blood that served as a lifeline against spiritual storms, effectively stabilizing one's mental sea.
Tarl Star was already the home to the largest black market outside the jurisdiction of the Interstellar Federation, and most of the attendees weren't just humans. There was no race in the Interstellar Federation that wasn't affected by spiritual storms.
The higher the level of one's spiritual power, the greater the likelihood of being tormented by spiritual storms.
Seas were like a life-saving elixir, so tonight's auction was especially lively.
However, the Imperial Marshal's purpose in coming to the auction house wasn't the sea.
Fu Linyuan's gaze stopped on the auction item just before the sea.
The exhibit showed a small transport bottle, and looking from the opening, it contained a light green powder.
They had been tracking this powder for quite some time.
This powder was highly addictive and had severe side effects.
Consumers' mental seas would enter an extremely unstable state, and some of them would even experience a direct outburst of spiritual power.
When this state subsided, the consumer's spiritual power level would permanently decline, and their internal organs would experience varying degrees of hardening.
As a result, this powder had long been classified as a prohibited substance in the Orian Empire.
However, in recent times, the frequency of Medusa, as it was called in the Empire, suspiciously increased manyfold.
Fu Linyuan was dispatched to investigate the source of this recent surge in Medusa smuggling.
However, the Marshal himself seemed a bit absent-minded now, and his attention wasn't entirely on the introduction book in front of him.
There was still some time left until midnight, and the auction's host for the night had not yet appeared.
Perhaps thinking of something else, Fu Linyuan's gaze casually swept down to the exhibition platform below.
Then he got up and left the private room.
Carefully observing the movements ahead, Yu Bai almost held his breath, stepping back as quietly as possible.
Among these enforcers, there should be someone with a decent level of spiritual power. Yu Bai had detected them using their spiritual power to search the rooms twice already.
His own spiritual power wasn't at its peak, so Yu Bai couldn't make any sudden movements. He had to conceal his presence while carefully and cautiously retreating step by step.
However, he completely failed to notice the hands reaching out behind him.
"...Injured?" Supporting Yu Bai, who almost lost his balance, the newcomer's sharp eyes accurately caught the faint red tinge between the gaps in his fingers, and he whispered, "Where are you injured?"
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Thank you for the chapter!
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