Chapter Forty-One: The Soulless Maiden, The Cuckoo in the Magpie’s Nest

Chapter Forty-One: The Soulless Maiden, A Cuckoo in the Nest

Yun Yang opened the system, glanced at the advanced life transition ticket inside, then at the life-sized figurine, and suddenly had a bold idea. If it were to come to life, then... No, he mustn’t let his thoughts wander there.

He sneaked a look at Xiao Yi’s tightly closed door, then circled around the figurine.

With an exaggerated yelp, Yun Yang bumped into the large figurine’s wing, feigning pain, and then said angrily, “You started it, you know! Xiao Yi can’t control me now.”

With that, he scooped up the large figurine and vanished from the virtual space, grabbing the glass phone floating in the cold expanse of the universe—still holding the angelic figurine in one arm.

Once steady, Yun Yang placed the figurine on a nearby asteroid, opened the system, selected the advanced life transition ticket, and, without hesitation, used it on the figurine.

A sphere of white, shimmering light enveloped the figurine, a timer reading 9:59 floating above its head. Yun Yang recognized it—every item upgrade had one, but he hadn’t expected it to take so long. As expected of an advanced ticket.

While Yun Yang waited, growing bored, Xiao Yi in his hand began to vibrate furiously. Just moments ago, she’d realized her master had left the virtual space, and an uneasy feeling had prompted her to check in. The sight shocked her—her precious figurine, half a year’s painstaking work, was gone. Realizing her master must have taken it, she began vibrating in panic.

Yun Yang glanced at Xiao Yi and decided to ignore her. This was a do-or-die moment, but he was confident of success.

Ten minutes passed in a flash. The white light faded, and now, there were two figures standing atop the asteroid in the lonely depths of space.

One wore black armor—our Yun Yang. The other was a woman in silver armor trimmed with gold and inset with sapphires, a golden crown atop her head, and a pair of white wings on her back—an angelic beauty, at least in Yun Yang’s eyes.

He opened the system interface, and a description appeared:

Advanced Life Transition—Success.

Name: The Soulless Maiden

Innate Ability: Soul Affinity

Ability Description: Automatically aligns with foreign souls.

Introduction: This is a soulless vessel. Is there a youth with dreams of transformation, willing to command her? If so, she will become your own...

Yun Yang stared at this stunning beauty for a while and felt doomed. According to the description, “soulless” meant she was just an empty shell—a fool. How could he ever return to Earth like this?

While Yun Yang was lamenting his fate, a soul—or, more precisely, a trace of dark information that had drifted through the universe for at least three hundred million years—began to seep into this beautiful body, which could perfectly accommodate it.

Exhausted from his complaints, Yun Yang was about to pull his now-living figurine back into the virtual space when he sensed something.

He looked in surprise toward the emptiness a hundred kilometers away. Nothing was visible, but intense spatial fluctuations suggested something was about to emerge from a wormhole.

Just as Yun Yang was about to lie back and watch the spectacle, something patted him on the back. Instantly, every hair on his body stood on end.

There had only been an immobile figurine behind him—was he seeing ghosts?

He turned stiffly, only to see the Soulless Maiden had come to life—not only alive, but now reaching out to pat him.

“Holy—who... who are you?” Yun Yang stammered. Then he remembered there was no sound in a vacuum and repeated the question via dark energy fluctuations—a trick he’d just learned.

“Who I am is not important. I want to know who you are, child, and what’s going on with this body,” the living figurine rattled off one question after another.

Yun Yang chose not to answer—clearly someone else had taken over his figurine. How could he be in a good mood about that?

Seeing Yun Yang remain silent, the mysterious woman had no choice but to say, “I just wrote an Eye of Insight program and checked your dark information. Odd—there’s only half a year’s worth.”

Yun Yang was startled—she could read his dark information? Then he realized: he’d only been in this universe for six months. Of course, it wouldn’t record any other universe’s data.

“You know the Eye of Insight? Are you an angel?” Yun Yang asked, surprised.

“Oh? A half-year-old child who knows about angels? Let me read a bit more.” As she delved deeper, she continued, “Leng, Yitian, Lingxi, Qingxue, Breeze. For such a young child, you know quite a few angels. But what’s up with that memory of yours, starting at a gas station?”

“I only know those few; I don’t know the others. By the way, who are you?” Yun Yang asked sheepishly. Hearing her list those names so warmly put him at ease—the tone was filled with genuine affection.

“Do you know who the King of the Gods is?” she asked slyly.

“You’re joking,” Yun Yang blurted out in shock. But then he thought—it was plausible. The King of the Gods, with such a powerful soul (dark information), could very well be immortal.

“It’s true. Thank you for saving Leng and the others, little godling.” Seeing Yun Yang’s astonished face, Keisha suddenly felt like teasing him.

When Keisha called him “little godling,” Yun Yang waved his hands furiously, flustered. “I’m not worthy, not at all.”

Just as Yun Yang was about to ask how to return to Earth, the space that had been fluctuating suddenly disgorged over a dozen ships of various sizes. Compared to the Gluttons’ ships, these were much cruder, their technological level apparently lower.

At the sight of the ships, Yun Yang was instantly excited. Ships meant a way out—he’d had enough of this place.

He had barely used teleportation lately, both to save energy and due to a lack of direction. Now, with ships appearing, how could he not be thrilled?

Rubbing his hands with anticipation, he turned to Keisha and asked, “Shall we go take a look?”

After all, she was the King of the Gods—she’d eaten more salt than Yun Yang had eaten rice. It couldn’t hurt to ask.

Keisha, amused by his request for her opinion, shook her head with a smile. “What’s a half-baked second-generation super soldier like you afraid of? Go.”

Without further ado, before Yun Yang could even use teleportation, Keisha grabbed him by the arm and brought him to the side of the largest ship.

She knocked amiably on the massive one-way transparent bridge window, and Yun Yang flashed a broad smile—who knew if the beings inside were even humanoid?

At that very moment, the crew inside the ship were dumbfounded. They were from Eden Star, a resource-gathering team of the Human United Destiny Community—the largest vessel actually a cargo ship.

Once they recovered from the shock of seeing beings survive in space without any equipment, they reported the situation to the fleet’s military escort.

After careful consideration, the squad leader in charge of security decided to bring the two humanoids on board—treat them well, win them over, and bring them back to Eden Star. After all, he’d seen the Edenites’ Life Technology Big Bang.

As for calling Yun Yang and Keisha “humanoids,” it was because, although Edenites looked very similar to humans, their ears were on top of their heads—like catgirls, but not cute, since there was no fur, just two upright triangular ears.

Just when Yun Yang was growing impatient and about to teleport inside, a truck-sized shuttle approached them. The hatch opened, and a person in a form-fitting white suit and helmet appeared at the door.

Yun Yang regarded the newcomer with curiosity—so they were humanoid after all. That promised easier communication.

Inside, the shuttle was roomy enough for three. The Edenite, serving as an onboard diplomatic officer, began chattering excitedly in an incomprehensible language about a routine mining mission. Their cargo ship had reported seeing two humanoids surviving in space and greeting them, so the command ship had dispatched him for first contact—a historic moment for Edenites.

Yun Yang sat down, listening to the masked figure babble on in a language he couldn’t understand, feeling somewhat frustrated—he’d finally met people, but couldn’t communicate at all.

The Edenite, realizing Yun Yang didn’t understand, tried several more languages, but Yun Yang remained baffled.

Suddenly, Yun Yang remembered the King of the Gods at his side. He shot a pleading look at Keisha, only to find her lost in thought. Flustered, he stood up and patted her.

Keisha, who had been delicately communicating with a sacred atom, lost her concentration and the atom vanished. She was about to glare at Yun Yang, but he spoke first.

“Respected Holy Keisha, I am ignorant and unlearned, and cannot understand what this person is saying. Can you?”

After a glance at Yun Yang’s eager face, she replied, “He says he’s an Edenite from the Human United Destiny Community, and he’s asking which star system we’re from and why we’re visiting their fleet.”

Tell them we were exiled here by an evil god, and hope they can provide us with a star chart to help us return home.

Keisha rolled her eyes at the child who had the King of the Gods translating for him, but still relayed the message word for word to the Edenite.

“Gods? Do you mean the omnipotent and omniscient beings from my understanding?” The Edenite was shocked by Keisha’s translation, but remained skeptical. He figured he must be misunderstanding—how could gods exist in this world? It had to be some unknown technology.