The Legendary Mechanic

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[Soul Parasite]: This character is infected by an exterior soul parasite, and his mind is being controlled by it. Source: Soul Swapper. Duration: Unknown.

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Aesop's current status appeared on his status bar.

Han Xiao noticed the words 'Soul Swapper' instantly. Clearly, this was the thing that secretly bypassed his detection devices and got to Aesop. He wondered what device this was.

He searched through his memories and was certain he had never heard of this name in his previous life.

"Soul Swapper, I wonder what its specific functions are. It sounds like a machine…"

While he was softly murmuring, Aesop suddenly froze, covered in sweat. His eyes widened with overwhelming shock.

What did I just hear? Did the exact words 'Soul Swapper' come out of Black Star's mouth‽

How does he know about the Soul Swapper? Where did this information get leaked‽

Of course, the Modo soldiers' souls inside Aesop's body did not know Han Xiao got this information from the interface, so the first thought that came to mind was that this information got leaked somewhere. His mind went blank with despair.

Han Xiao noticed his abnormal reaction and thought, He's responding strongly to it, which means this Soul Swapper must be something very important.

Since he now knew the symptoms, the matter was no longer that complicated. It was clearly more suitable for someone with expertise in the soul area to handle it.

Han Xiao stood up and called Feidin over, pointing at Aesop.

"The old man got infected by a soul parasite. Take a look."

"Sure." Feidin nodded. A ripple psychic energy was released from between his eyes and entered Aesop's mind.

The others waited on the side. About twenty seconds later, Feidin retrieved his psychic energy and looked hesitant.

"What is it? Is something wrong?" Han Xiao raised his brows.

Feidin frowned slightly. "There is indeed another cluster of collective souls inside his mind. Not really strong, Grade B at most, so I can deal with it. The problem is, this cluster of parasite souls has already perfectly fused with Aesop's own soul with close to no rejection. I have hardly ever seen anything like this…"

"So, you're saying there are risks?" Ames asked.

"There are indeed. They've fused too deeply, so the difficulty of removing the parasite is as high as doing an extremely precise operation on his soul. There's no room for errors. Once something goes wrong, Aesop's own soul will be damaged too…"

"You don't have to force it if you're not confident. I can ask Kasuyi to help. He'll definitely give me face."

Han Xiao was not surprised. He was in a similar situation back when he fought seven-eyes, so he was somewhat experienced. Aesop's situation was much less severe than his.

Feidin shook his head. "It's not that I'm not confident. I can eliminate the parasites, but I can't do it without wiping out their souls. This is why I'm confirming, do you want to do some interrogation first before curing Aesop?"

The soul swap of the Soul Swapper had close to no side effects, which most Supers were unable to do. To most Supers, the soul was a mysterious territory that could not be messed with.

Feidin, for example, could not even divide his own wife out of his soul and could only make love mentally every day. So, of course, he could not get rid of the parasite while still ensuring it stayed alive.

"I see, then don't cure him just yet." Han Xiao responded without hesitation.

The parasite was currently his biggest source of intelligence, so he had to interrogate him no matter what. Curing Aesop could be done after that.

As for the fact that Aesop's body would still be the one getting tortured during the interrogation… Ha, there was Aurora's life energy potion anyway. As long as there was no risk of Aesop dying, there was no problem.

The conversation between them was open, so the Modo soldiers inside Aesop's body heard it too and were in incomparable despair.

He wanted to keep all the intelligence he knew hidden, but he was well aware that there was nothing he could hide in the face of a Calamity Grade who specialized in souls.

Without the Soul Swapper, the body became a prison, and he was locked inside Aesop's body, unable to do anything but accept his fate.

"Leave the interrogation to me." Feidin waved and told the army soldiers to lead Aesop to the interrogation room.

Feidin was a kind person who did not like interrogations, but in the face of such a despicable enemy, he did not mind using more extreme methods.

The soldiers around cleaned up the scene and took the captives away. This time, Ames came to Han Xiao and softly said, "We've got who we came for. What are you planning to do now?"

"Ask the parasite who sent him, then come up with a plan depending on that. No matter what, this isn't over," Han Xiao replied casually.

All he knew now was that the Mechanic Emperor was part of this. He did not know if there were any other organizations behind it. Although they were not able to reach their goal, he was not going to let this go so easily.

He even planned to use this as the clue to search for information about the Soul Swapper, to see if he could obtain it and study it.

"Okay. If you're going to retaliate, count me in." Ames's tone was indisputable and firm.

"… I'm guessing they came for me. You don't have to drag yourself into this trouble. I'm here." Han Xiao shook his head.

He knew the risks involved, and he did not wish to involve Ames.

He also did not want Ames to step into his conflict with the Mechanic Emperor. Battles between peak Beyond Grade As were still too dangerous for her.

"What do you mean? I'm not one who's afraid of trouble. If they dare to target my men, I'll have to show them I'm not easy to mess with!" Ames frowned before smiling once more. "Also, you helped me, so I have to help you too. That's what an ally should do. Even if you reject me, I won't give up."

As she said that, a notification popped up on the interface.

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You have triggered mission [Ames' Rage]!

Mission Introduction: Due to her family being hurt, Ames is enraged. She hopes to take revenge on the mastermind of it with you.

Mission Requirements: Take revenge on the mastermind together with Ames.

Reward: 250,000,000 EXP, +40 Ames Favorability, +10 Aesop Favorability, +30,000 Floating Dragon Island Contribution Points, 2 Random Rewards, 1 Character Summon Card.

Bonus rewards will be given depending on the Mission Rating.

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Han Xiao scanned through the mission. This kind of mission was becoming less and less significant to him nowadays, but it still counted. Anyway, it would not be too much trouble, so he accepted it.

Mainly because he saw how firm Ames' eyes looked—she was clearly not going to give up. Instead of letting her take the risk herself, he might as well be by her side, so she would at least not do something as extreme as she did in his previous life.

…

About an hour later, Feidin came to the command room and gave the report in his hands to Han Xiao.

"The interrogation is done. All the information is in here. Nothing is missing."

Han Xiao took the file and browsed through it. The content was extremely detailed. It included the Modo Civilization's goal for this mission, how the Soul Swapper worked, the existence of the Soul Swap Twins, and so on. Everything was laid out clearly.

With Feidin's psychic scan of the Modo soldier's soul, he had obtained everything he knew.

"Hmm, so it's Modo. I knew it was Modo." Han Xiao sneered.

After reading the file, Han Xiao finally understood what was going on. This was within his expectations.

The only thing that surprised him was the Soul Swapper that was shockingly a Space Wonder grade treasure. The Modo Civilization had such an amazing device in their hands, yet it was not exposed at all in his previous life.

Nonetheless, this was not too surprising. Advanced civilizations all had trump cards. Some were extremely well hidden and not displayed to the public. Of course, Han Xiao had no memories of the Universal Treasures that the players in his previous life did not come into contact with.

Now that he knew, he started having ideas.

"There's no reason to let such a good thing slip."

Han Xiao was very tempted.

One reason was because of how magical the Soul Swapper was, and another was to prevent Modo from using the Soul Swapper on him again in the future. One way or another, he had to make Modo lose this trump card.

At the same time, Han Xiao became more alert too.

"I can't underestimate any advanced civilizations. God knows when they'll bring up another strange trump card by surprise…" Han Xiao closed the file and pondered. "By the way, have you eliminated the parasite yet?"

"Not yet." Feidin shook his head.

"Okay, don't cure Aesop just yet. Although we've acquired everything he knows, the parasite is still useful. He's an important piece of evidence."

The Modo Civilization is the mastermind, and their goal is to force the Black Star Army to retreat. While the Mechanic Emperor worked with Modo secretly most probably because he wants to cause problems to me, I can work around that… With the use of some choice words, I can make this into the Mechanic Emperor choosing to stand on the side of the Super Star Cluster Alliance against the three Universal Civilizations.

As long as he reported this to the three Universal Civilizations, old b*stard Manison's situation would be even worse.

This was not just personal. Han Xiao made a daring assumption. Since the Mechanic Emperor's men came into contact with Aesop too, could he have known about the existence of the Soul Swapper too and was looking for it secretly, hoping to obtain it?

If that was the case, Manison would become Han Xiao's competitor. If he told the three Universal Civilizations about this and had them keep a close eye on the Mechanic Emperor, the Mechanic Emperor's forces would be affected, and it would be more difficult for him to find the Soul Swapper, which was beneficial to Han Xiao.

"Since the three Universal Civilizations are on my side, it would be a waste not to make use of that. It's worth trying."

All kinds of thoughts flashed through Han Xiao's mind. He analyzed the situation and felt that this was doable. Therefore, he walked to the side, took out the communicator, and called Urranrell's private number.

After a while, the communication got picked up, Urranrell's face appeared on the screen.

"Black Star, I'm in a meeting. What is it?"

"I've discovered a piece of intelligence recently. It's about the Mechanic Emperor…"

Han Xiao explained what had happened, naturally adding some 'color' to it, while also displaying evidence such as Aesop to prove he was not making it up.

Hearing this, Urranrell's expression became serious.

"You're saying that, after the Intelligent Plague, not only did the Mechanic Emperor not regret it and change for the better, he even got worse and secretly joined the Super Star Cluster Alliance, executed confidential missions, and is helping them to fight the three Universal Civilizations?"

"Yes, that's right."

Han Xiao agreed with it without any change of tone, clearly experienced with framing others.

"… Okay, I get it. This is a very important piece of intelligence. I'll inform the federation and the church to quickly come up with a solution."

Urranrell nodded solemnly and quickly hung up the communication.

Seeing this, Han Xiao smirked.

As the saying went, one's happiness was built on another's pain. The unluckier Mechanic Emperor got, the happier he was.

Old Manison, don't blame me for this. This treasure and I are fated. You already have so many Universal Treasures. Don't fight me for this one.

At this time, Nero walked in.

"Godfather, where do we start the search?"

"Hmm, before Aesop got attacked, he made one last contact with the Modo Civilization's troops. Start with that," Han Xiao said.

Since he now knew that Modo was the mastermind, it was clear when Aesop got infected, and that would be a clear lead. That secret transport fleet of the Modo Civilization had to have been carrying the Soul Swapper, and they would have to return through secret stargates and transport the Soul Swapper back. Hence, he had to find them as soon as possible.

This time, Han Xiao suddenly thought of something and said, "By the way, I remember that one ship survived among the tracking teams that coincidentally found the Modo Civilization's fleet. Go capture them immediately."

Having uncovered the functions of the Soul Swapper, he speculated that there might be spies in those teams, and the spies were most likely in that tracking team that survived.

…

"Hmm? This spaceship has lost contact?"

Manison was a little surprised to receive this report from his subordinate.

There seemed to be only one explanation for this situation, that Black Star had caught up with Aesop and hacked the spaceship of his subsidiary organization.

"Weird, how did Black Star get this information?" Manison frowned slightly.

The focus of his work recently had been on searching for the Soul Swapper, on which he had already made some progress, but he was also paying attention to Aesop.

From the way Manison looked at it, the subsidiary organizations he had left in the Shattered Star Ring were very well hidden. With their help, they should be able to easily get Aesop out of the Shattered Star Ring.

However, the reality was completely different. It was as if Black Star knew the whereabouts of his subsidiary organization like the back of his hand. He could follow them anywhere they went.

Manison thought that his subsidiary organizations were very well hidden, which was why he felt the odds of success were high if he worked with the Modo Civilization using that.

However, now that he looked at it, Black Star seemed to already have eyes on his subsidiary organizations, and there was a risk of them being all exposed. If worst came to worst, more than half of the forces he had operating in the Shattered Star Ring would be completely obliterated. It would be a huge loss!

Manison clenched his fist before slowly letting go. He did not look too happy.

"No matter what, now that Black Star caught Aesop, he'll know about the Soul Swapper, so he has become my competitor… I have to speed up now. My losses will only be made up for if I get the Soul Swapper!"