Chapter 23

The time spent traveling on the spaceship was quite uneventful. After all, the outside view was always a pitch-black expanse, and the occasional appearance of a sun emitting fiery energy was a rare sight. As a result, Qin Fei spent most of his time with Xi Yuan in the bedroom. With nothing else to do, Qin Fei began to experiment with his abilities. He took some plant seeds and transferred his energy into them. He watched as the seeds sprouted, grew, and sent out shoots at a speed visible to the naked eye. Qin Fei found it fascinating and had an idea: if he could accelerate the growth of vegetable seeds, they would have fresh vegetables. Thinking it through, he eagerly gathered a variety of vegetable seeds and used his abilities to rapidly grow a large amount of vegetables. This led to an overflow of vegetables that they couldn’t possibly consume in a short period, so they had to store them in the fridge.

Xi Yuan didn’t express any opinion on this. Although the spaceship had already prepared plenty of fresh vegetables for the master, if the master took an interest in growing them, Xi Yuan had no objections. In fact, this allowed the master to become more familiar with his abilities, which was a good thing. Xi Yuan himself had done many trivial things when he was newly mature, but they helped him understand his own energy, so they were not wasted.

Life on the spaceship was unexpectedly fulfilling. On one hand, he was practicing his abilities, and on the other, he was learning the basic steps of operating the mecha under Xi Yuan’s guidance.

When he first started using the mecha, he stumbled backward after taking a few steps and then fell flat on his face in an awkward heap. With a loud crash, Qin Fei couldn’t help but feel a bit helpless. His usually nimble body now felt like that of a clumsy giant, and his limbs were completely out of sync.

The mecha could be controlled by directly connecting to his spiritual power. The moment the connection was made, Qin Fei felt like he had an extremely sturdy outer shell. The problem was that his spiritual power and the mecha’s system were still in the process of syncing, and the vague commands he sent out couldn’t be completely understood by the mecha’s control center. This led to mishaps, like intending to step forward with his left foot, only for the mecha to extend his right foot instead, causing him to trip over himself.

By the time he was able to walk around the training field normally, two hours had already passed.

Xi Yuan had to speak up and advise, “Master, please get down for now. It’s already been two hours. Are you starting to feel a bit tired?”

Qin Fei nodded. Although he really wanted to continue conquering this giant machine, since Xi Yuan had spoken, he opened the hatch and jumped off the mecha, which was about 6 meters high.

The moment he landed, something that hadn’t been noticeable before suddenly struck Xi Yuan. He felt a wave of dizziness, his head pounding, and he reached up to press his temples.

Xi Yuan immediately stepped forward, supporting him. He placed his hands on either side of his head, gently massaging the acupoints around it with even pressure.

“Do you feel a little dizzy now? It’s normal for a first-time mecha user. Often, while on the mecha, you might feel full of energy, but once you get off, you’ll experience the sensation of your spiritual power being drained. You did well to last over two hours on your first attempt. The next time you get on, you’ll be able to last at least double that time.”

“Next time? How long until the next time?” Qin Fei asked. He felt dizzy now, but it wasn’t serious, and he even thought he could stay on the mecha for over an hour more.

“Tomorrow. For now, you need to rest well.”

After a quick combat shower, Qin Fei was unceremoniously pushed into bed by Xi Yuan. Despite still feeling energetic, as soon as Qin Fei’s head hit the pillow, he fell asleep. At first, his sleep quality wasn’t great, his head felt as if it were going to explode. But soon, a familiar, gentle aura surrounded him. Under its comforting influence, the discomfort faded away, and he slipped into a deep, peaceful sleep.

He didn’t know how long he slept, but when he woke up, Qin Fei found himself rubbing his stomach in realization that he was likely hungry.

Turning his head, he saw Xi Yuan lying beside him. Upon seeing that Qin Fei had woken up, Xi Yuan immediately sat up. “Master, dinner is ready.”

After a satisfying meal, Qin Fei finally had the time to think about his spiritual power. He realized that the dull, heavy feeling in his head had completely disappeared. Thinking back to the aura from before, he immediately understood—it was the Sea of Consciousness of his mate. They shared spiritual energy, and that had helped soothe the discomfort in his own Sea of Consciousness.

He had overestimated himself. Just because he hadn’t felt discomfort at first didn’t mean that nothing was wrong.

Realizing this, Qin Fei felt a bit disheartened. But after a moment, he pulled himself together. His starting point was already high, and there was no reason for negative emotions to surface now.

Greed for more, always wanting what’s beyond reach, would only trap him in exhaustion.

After a good night’s sleep following dinner, Qin Fei woke up the next day feeling completely fine. After breakfast, he immediately grabbed Xi Yuan and headed back to the training ground. Now that he was competing with the mecha, he refused to believe he couldn’t master this giant machine.

Xi Yuan taught the Master step by step, putting in his best effort. On one hand, he felt that the Master’s talent in this area wasn’t very sharp, he lacked the subtle intuition and finesse, being more direct and blunt. On the other hand, he also thought that since the Master didn’t need to use the mecha on the battlefield to fight enemies, it wasn’t such a loss if he couldn’t achieve perfect synchronization with the machine.

What Xi Yuan didn’t realize was that he was comparing Qin Fei to himself as a reference point. Female zergs were naturally more skilled at using mechas than males, and as a level nine female zerg with extraordinarily high spiritual power, Xi Yuan was naturally much more talented. Of course, Qin Fei couldn’t compare to him, but when compared to the others, Qin Fei was more than capable.

Their first stop was Aurora Star. Traveling from Diqiulei to Aurora Star, even with a spaceship, would take at least five days at maximum speed. They didn’t adjust to the highest speed, so it took them six days.

During these six days, Qin Fei’s mind was entirely focused on the mecha. He set aside his supernatural abilities and dedicated most of his time to mastering the machine. Only when his spiritual energy reached its limit did he “train” his abilities.

After six days, Qin Fei had made significant progress in mastering the mecha. He no longer stumbled or fell halfway through his steps, and he could smoothly perform a full set of calisthenics. If he performed well, he could even do some fancy moves and jumps without any problems.

As for his supernatural abilities, Qin Fei had stopped experimenting with vegetables. The vegetables he had grown on the first day were enough to last him for more than a month. So, he started experimenting with magic plants instead. To his surprise, he found that he could have a subtle effect on accelerating the growth of the lowest-level magic plants!

This was already a remarkable ability. Xi Yuan said, “Master, there aren’t many people in the empire with this ability—less than a hundred. Most of the magic plants that can be accelerated are of low level, and only a few can stimulate the growth of mid-level magic plants. But those who can do it are already quite old, having fully developed their powers. You, Master, are still young, and there is a lot of potential for improvement.”

“Are you trying to comfort me?” Qin Fei put down the second-level magic plant that had failed to work again, turned around, and smiled, saying, “Don’t worry, I’m not upset.”

As soon as he put down the magic plant, a warm energy flowed from his arm, and then both Qin Fei and Xi Yuan watched as the magic plant sprouted its fourth young leaf.

!!!

Then, a sense of intent came over, and Qin Fei felt the emotion of the Lucky Clover, which seemed to be asking for praise for its help. He blinked.

“Uh… Xi Yuan, it seems Lucky Clover has some other abilities.”