"Aww! How sweet! Feng-feng! Feng-feng!" Big Li prodded Zhao Feng, in a spoiled tone. "Can you say something nice like that?"

"You smell good." Zhao Feng said shortly.

Big Li whapped him over the head with a blush. [Do I really smell?! Oh dear, I've been all sweaty all day…]

Mu Hou had to fight to keep his face from turning darker. [Keep cool… don't show your jealousy… don't show it… don't! But why? Why is it that I have been scoring points all this while yet she still seems to be paying him more attention?!]

Yueli noticed that the more she tried to flirt with Feng-feng, the harder Mu Hou tried to grab her attention, adding promises upon promises.

Zhao Feng, meanwhile, was actually losing interest in Xue Yueli. What he wanted to know was that secret that had been bugging him all this time. He spoke in a direct manner with Yueli, but she kept playing coy and acting spoiled. [One quick dagger thrust to the throat should be able to kill him quietly. If I grab Yueli and run for it, we should be able to reach my villa before anyone could suspect anything. After that… cooked rice cannot be uncooked. As my wife, surely she would cover for me. Otherwise, she need not live either. At the same time, surely the secret would be mine. It would be killing two birds with one stone.]

Mu Hou, on the other hand, was considering something remarkably similar. [It is good that my men are the ones in charge of dinner tonight. Poison for Feng, and aphrodisiac for Yueli. That should be perfect.]

Hearing their thoughts, Remian had had it. "I'm getting out of here. I'm going after Wushuang."

Were they serious? Maybe. Just because they entertained a thought, though, didn't mean they were actually going to do it. As much as they wanted to kill each other, the guys were usually well-behaved and had decent reputations in society. Chances were, they were only going to exchange verbal jabs and spend a whole lot of money in the end.

That, and drive him mad. In order to preserve his sanity, Remian headed into the Red Mists on his own.

Yes, it was tiring. Yes, it was dangerous. But he could sense the creatures lurking about in the mists, and could avoid them quite easily while making his way toward the Treasure s.h.i.+pwreck.

Up ahead, Wushuang and Little Li were loading up larger and larger pieces into their backpacks. "We can throw out the rations and camping gear to make room for them. After this, we'll notify Yueli and head straight back."

"You might be able to do without camping gear, but what about me?" Little Li pouted.

"Then you can stay with the group and use theirs."

"But then I'll be lugging this stuff with me all the time!"

"Yep. You have three options, but mind you, we don't get many chances to salvage Celestial Iron."

Mournfully, Little Li emptied her pack, ditching camping gear, a fluffy pillow, and five packs of snacks. Wushuang blinked at the stuff that came out for a moment, then wordlessly shook her head and stuffed in pieces of Celestial Iron.

As he tread carefully through the mists, Remian studied the s.h.i.+pwreck through Wushuang's and Little Li's eyes.

To be frank, it wasn't a whole s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. It was more like half a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, or maybe just a piece broken off some whole of unknown size. For all they could tell, it might be really just a broken-off corner. What he did know was that it was roughly shaped like a half-oval, and the only things alive inside were rodents. There were faded markings on the walls; writing of some sort, Remian guessed, though he couldn't recognize any of it. There was also a big snake living deeper in, practically underneath, an Acid-Spitting Python that Wushuang did not want to fight. Using the metrics of his own world, based on Wushuang's thoughts, that Python should be a Tier 6, something on par with the Lords of the Wilds.

Wushuang saw nothing of value in that wreck other than the sh.e.l.l itself. But Remian eyed it and wondered. [Is that a turret? That means that long piece of bent metal was some sort of cannon. That looks like a socket… something that fits a diamond-shaped object. That looks like a console, probably a gunner's station…

And then Remian saw something that made him jump, something that almost made him want to run straight over.

[Is that… a small s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p?!]

It was a rock-within-rock, to Wushuang, but Remian instead saw something different. He saw a smaller craft berthed in a docking bay, the way Mindy's fighters were berthed in a carrier. But this one was stuck, caught under some fallen pillar or the other. It looked like a cracked egg.

Remian frowned. He didn't see anything on it that looked like a weapon. [Maybe it's not a combat vessel. Maybe it's just for transportation or cargo.]

Even so, other than the cracked sh.e.l.l, there was still a possibility, a tantalizing possibility, that inside that 'stone', there might be, maybe… an intact component or two.

…Or maybe everything had turned to dust after all this time. That was a possibility too.

Actually, no, that was a probability. An overwhelming probability.

Nevertheless, Remian was interested to find out for himself. He just had to evade the Xue cousins.

That shouldn't be hard. They were about to head back, making a direct beeline for Big Li's location. All he had to do was veer off a little to the left or right…

Remian voted left. There was something sleeping on the right, something rather large, and he did not want to disturb it.

Silently, he crept over, and waited as Wushuang and Little Li hurried past, completely oblivious to his presence in the mists. They were trying to sneak, he felt, rus.h.i.+ng as fast as they could while trying to be quiet. It didn't matter to him. He could hear their thoughts buzzing around like bees.

As for himself, he made his way into the heart of the Red Mists.

***

Battle erupted upon the Nine Kings Mountain Range again.

"Three packs, two on the left, one on the right!" the lookout shouted. "Led by Tier 7's!"

"Artillery on the left!" George glanced at Arnold. "Now's the time to test your new tank! Head to the right!"

"Got it!" Arnold and Jim whooped and dove into their newly built combat tank. This would be the first real battle they'd test it in.

With a chugging sound, the tank started up and started rolling to the right. Heavy tracks left trails as obvious as daylight in the gra.s.s as it led a mixed ma.s.s of Wilds and heavy infantry to the smaller combat arena. Ten of George's corvettes swooped low overhead to provide air support.

"Targets in sight! All along the ridge!" Jim reported from the turret above.

"I see them!" Arnold had to peer out from a narrow window while seated at the driver's seat below. "Fire at will!"

Jim charged up the cannon from a mana converter installed on his right, waited for the charge to build up as they neared, and aimed the cannon carefully.

"Firing!" he reported, and blasted out a magical surge.

A mana bolt flew across the distance and splashed against an incoming Tier 6 Spectre.

Then, there was a short silence.

"What… that's it?" George's voice chirped through the communications crystal. "That's all your tank can do?"

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"The tank is built as a mobile armor, not artillery!" Arnold grouched. "It's not like we have mana crystals to spare! We can barely get this thing moving as it is!"

"Where did you get the mana for the tank anyway?"

"We had some magi manually charge up the tank. I mean, the tank's tank. Arrgh, you know what I mean!"

"You guys are running on stored energy? Not a converter?"

"The converter's for the cannon!"

"And yet that's the best it can do?"

"On broken shards of yellow mana crystal? Yeah, that's about it. Try giving us a red mana crystal and things would be different."

"Do you have thirty-five million lir lying around?" George asked tartly. "Because that's the price the last red mana crystal sold for."

"But surely the price has dropped by now since the ambient mana is increasing day by day!"

"Not yet, it hasn't. n.o.body is even sure how long this mana flow is going to last."

"Hate to break it to you, Arnold, but that level of firepower isn't much better than having a mage scroll-cast that same spell on foot!"

Jim fired again. "They're coming! They're coming at us too fast!"

BAM! Something powerful slammed onto the tank from the left. Metal squealed as the wall buckled, and horrifyingly, something semi-tangible appeared, a s.h.i.+mmery claw that had moved slowly right through the armor like it was jelly.

"WHOA!!" Arnold wrestled with the controls, bringing the tank about in a desperate turn.

"Watch out! There's a dead elephant in front!"

There was a crash, and then the tank tried to roll over the body, but it was no use. In a moment, they were stuck.

"That's it! We're out of there!" Arnold kicked open the bottom escape hatch. "This tank is useless!"

"We're done." Jim agreed, hopping out and away from the tank and then running for his life.

Experimental tank; FAILED!