Poverty makes me capable of anything.

After passing through the gray fog, the group arrived at the Flying Starship.

The spaceship landed in a depression, with butler robots and guard robots standing nearby. They didn't see anyone foolish enough to come and cause trouble.

After opening the hatch, Anran gestured for the members of the Flying Pirates to go inside.

"You can rest here for now. There's nothing to worry about. I've already sealed off the restricted areas on the spaceship. If you want something to eat, you can help yourselves," An Ran said to Su Tingxue.

With the captain seriously injured and his life hanging in the balance, the only person who can speak for the Flying Pirates right now is Su Tingxue, who appears mature and has a rather meticulous mind.

As for the short man, although he was one of the three in charge, he was too eccentric and did not usually manage this aspect of the work.

On the way here, she was still sulking because of An Ran's question, "Where are your parents?" and glared at An Ran fiercely every now and then.

"Thank you," Su Tingxue said gratefully.

After a series of mishaps, the Flying Pirates completely scattered. There were only about a hundred of them, and their spaceship was damaged upon landing. It was a terrible situation.

When Su Tingxue learned that An Ran was coming to rescue them, she was incredibly excited. Seeing An Ran walk over after eliminating the Kanti outside was like seeing a god.

"If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving now," An Ran said.

Su Tingxue frowned: "Are you still determined to go there?"

An Ran nodded: "That's right."

“The place the aurora indicated is really dangerous. You saved us, and I can’t just watch you go and die.” Su Tingxue stared into An Ran’s eyes, meeting her gaze without flinching.

"..."

Therefore—

What dangers are there?

“That’s the key to liberating the void,” Su Tingxue said.

That's all?

An Ran blinked: "I know that. It's precisely because this is the key to liberating the void that I have to go there. I absolutely cannot let the Hundred Wood Pirates release the void."

Su Tingxue shook her head: "Things aren't as simple as you think. I suspect that people from the Holy Church are also involved in this operation. If they are, it would be too dangerous for you to rush over like this."

"..."

Now is not the time to talk about this kind of thing.

We're in a hurry.

"There's no time to explain now. I have to get there. You guys can rest here for now."

Seeing that An Ran was determined to leave, Su Tingxue had no choice but to settle for second best.

"In that case, I'll go with you. I might come in handy."

"Then you can come with me."

An Ran did not refuse.

She always felt that Su Tingxue knew some secrets, and seemed to know more than she did. Maybe she would be of great use in the future. Even if she wasn't, it wouldn't be bad to have a pretty older sister who would say "666" by her side.

The cockpit was quite spacious, so An Ran let Su Tingxue sit outside the mecha.

"..."

Unmoved by beauty.

How could an unfamiliar and formidable pirate so easily let her into the cockpit?

The gray fog area remained a chaotic mess; the only place that could be clearly seen when you looked up was the fifth metal monument, which was illuminated.

What are you going there to do?

Su Tingxue, who was hanging on the mecha's thigh, asked.

An Ran's voice came through the mecha, as if it were right next to Su Tingxue's ear: "Of course, it's to maintain world peace and fight against evil forces."

Su Tingxue's lips twitched.

She coughed lightly and said, "Alright, then I won't ask you your real purpose. But I suppose you still don't want the Void to be released. In fact, even if the Holy Church removes the seals on these five steles, they will still need to meet many conditions to release the Void."

Oh?

"What other conditions are needed?" An Ran was still very interested in this topic.

"First, there are other seals. There are three seals that suppress the void. The seal here on Yuanhai Star is just one of them, which seals the perception of the void."

An Ran nodded, but this action did not register on the mecha.

Su Tingxue continued, "There are also two sealing arrays that seal the Void's bewitching ability and its ability to open passages, respectively."

That makes sense.

"Once the seal on Yuan Haixing is broken, the void can perceive this world. However, because the other two abilities have not been unsealed, it still cannot descend into this world."

"Even if all three seals are opened, it won't be so easy for the Void to descend upon this world."

"What do you mean by that?" An Ran looked at Su Tingxue with a puzzled expression.

"Because the space of Paradise was completely disrupted in the previous battle. If the Void wants to descend into this world, it must find a suitable coordinate point. Space travel cannot be done randomly. If you are lucky enough to land in a safe star field, that's fine. But if you are unlucky enough to land in hyperspace, or in other star fields that are much stronger than this star field, then you are really delivering yourself to the door."

"..."

Anran imagined that scenario.

The void got lost in hyperspace.

Or rather, just as the void was confidently preparing to infect a planet in front of it, a star-domain level powerhouse of over level 200 suddenly appeared and smashed its head with a single punch.

Emmm...

Unorthodox methods of traversing the river bring tears to the eyes of believers.

"If there are so many restrictions, how did the Void come to this world before?" An Ran asked.

"Last time, it was just good luck. But even so, it still encountered many powerful beings that were not much weaker than itself, so it was eventually sealed. Over the years, the people of the Holy Council have been trying to find a way to release the sealed void, and they have actually come up with a solution."

An Ran was taken aback: "How do you know so much inside information?"

It would normally be difficult to determine whether Su Tingxue was telling the truth or not, but seeing that the progress of the [Song of the Old World] quest had increased by another 1%, An Ran was convinced that she was right.

Current progress: 13%.

We are still far from the first threshold of 50%.

"I only learned most of these things when I first arrived at Yuanhai Star."

So, there's a small portion that isn't?

"It seems you don't want to say more. Then can you tell me what the Holy Church has come up with as a solution?"

“That’s no problem.” Su Tingxue organized her thoughts. “One of the biggest problems with the Void’s inability to descend is finding the coordinates. After all, this is a cross-world journey, and the Holy Council can’t help with that. But later, the Void came up with a solution: since the old coordinates were destroyed, they would create a new one.”

New coordinates?

"The Void passed down the method through the 'Holy Decree,' and the people of the Holy Council spent several years preparing to establish more than a dozen coordinates. However, unfortunately, due to the Empire's accidental actions, these coordinates were destroyed regardless of whether they had grown up or not."

“I understand,” An Ran said. “You mean even if the Holy Church breaks the seal, it will still take them several years to release the Void. The key is not the Void itself, but the Holy Church, which has become a traitor to humanity.”

"That's pretty much the gist of it. The Holy Church is a problem that the Empire should be dealing with. We have absolutely no need to get involved. Going there now would only put us in danger."

Progress 15%.

Although this plan is only described in a few words, it accounts for a significant portion of the mission.

Anran felt that there was still more to enjoy.

She felt that Su Tingxue must have even more valuable knowledge.

If we stripped her naked, the progress might increase by another 10%.

But we can't force people to do things they don't want to do.

Be courteous.

"Thank you for telling me this, but I will absolutely not let those people from the Hundred Wood Pirates go. If I really can't beat them, I will run away."

An Ran wasn't actually that worried.

Even if the Holy See intervenes, they probably haven't sent anyone particularly powerful.

Otherwise, the Hundred Wood Pirates' search for the metal monument would have been much smoother; any level 100+ master-level NPC could have easily swept through the entire starry sky.

The Silver Moon Knight and the Nightbringer traversed the gray fog and finally arrived at the area shrouded in intense light.

……

"This is bad. It seems that this matter is involved with the Mechanicus."

Lin Wu frowned and said to his superior.

Walker, the second-in-command of the think tank.

“These runes are indeed the same style as those of the Mechanicus, and some parts are even exactly the same.” Walker pushed the documents in front of Lin Wu.

Lin Wu presented another document: "After I came back, I specifically investigated information about the Void. But these documents are all too vague. Even the time is only roughly described. They give a general description of the disasters caused by the Void, and there are very few records about the people who sealed the Void."

"It depends on the governor. These are turbulent times. We should avoid trouble if possible, but we can't just ignore it if we have the chance."

Lin Wu agreed with Walker's view, and that afternoon Walker delivered the intelligence to the fat governor.

After a busy day, Lin Wu took a hot shower and was about to rest at the service area when he suddenly received a call from his boss.

"..."

He glanced at the orange-red sky in the distance and the time displayed on the virtual billboard to the side: 18:53.

Civil servants need rest too.

Unless it's an emergency.

"The investigation team dispatched by the Empire has arrived."

What?

"What investigation team?"

“They’re here to investigate the matter we discussed this morning,” Walker said.

What the f**k?