Shi Lang was sitting inside the warship command deck, watching Hawk and Sonic controlling the vessel as they were heading back to Novus. Suddenly, Sparrow asked, “Sir, what do you intend to extract from them? I mean do you not usually prefer the Soul search method?”
The young general cast her a gaze and said, “I would have loved to use the same method on these two, as it is efficient and saves a lot of time, but they happen to have strength equal to me. Their souls are also as strong as mine, this will also consume much more soul energy, and mind you, Soul energy is very precious. I would rather not waste it.”
Sparrow nodded but another teammate, Saliha spoke up, “Well, boss, you have not acted like your sadist self for a long time now, so it is better that you have these two reptiles to play with and not enjoy tormenting us in the name of training.”
Shi Lang was surprised for a moment but then he chuckled. He could not deny the fact that he loved when his enemies quivered in fear of his approach. He enjoyed the dread dripping from their eyes, as he had them walk on the edge of death and life. His prey always preferred to fall off the cliff and die rather than live and experience hell in his hands.
The ship reached hypervelocity and they entered a space jump. It took them two days to go back to Novus, the situation Naris had invited them to deal with was also taken care of. When they reached Novus, the ship was again hidden underwater and they dragged the two prisoners to the base camp.
The base camp was settled in the so-called graveyard of the Drads. The Drads were the native wooden they had encountered for the first time they had come here. Now, after the relationship and frequent interactions over the past few months, these natives have become allies to the team. Shi Lang received spirit weapons from them..
In his interactions, he discovered that despite being a primitive civilization, these drads were capable of interacting with the spiritual energy very easily. This was why they all had perceived the formulas or runes as they called them, to craft spirit artifacts. Shi Lang had also been learning from them and the sword hanging from his waist was a product he made for himself.
Sonic and Sparrow dragged the two snarling lizardmen behind them, leading them into the depth of the forests and finally coming to their base camp. To the eyes of a new person, there was nothing other than trees here. Shi Lang and his team had very ingeniously hidden the base camp with illusion arrays.
The base camp happened to be hanging amidst the tree canopy. It was a network of circular cabins, they had spent a great deal setting this place up and it was very practically done. Shi Lang and the team jumped up and vanished as they entered the illusion array. The young man entered the biometrics and the team led the two captives inside the cabins.
The lizardmen have been knocked out long ago and now they were taken inside. They were placed in magnetic holding cells for the time being. Shi Lang had spent a lot of energy and he needed rest. To intimidate the enemy one must not show weakness and at this moment, everyone was aware that he was maintaining a pretense.
During his battle, the later attacks from the lizardmen did injure him, although the impact was reduced to minimal because of the suit. Shi Lang walked inside his room and then after began to heal himself.
Shi Lang’s room was equipped with a spirit-gathering formation that he had learned from the ruins on The Frontier. He did not share the knowledge of this formation with even his teammates. The formation was able to condense the spiritual energy so much that it will transform into a liquid drop of nector.
In his absence, the formation will usually condense a drop of dew, today he consumed this drop instead of saving it in a vial and began to heal himself. The flow of spiritual energy healed him like a wave of warm water washing over him on a cold night. Two days after Shi lang stepped out of his room, he was completely healed and back to his peak.
He moved to the holding cells and found the two captives lying there. The lizardmen were really immobilized by a blow to the tail bone. The counterweight to their huge bodies was gone, so they could not stand anymore. Shi Lang stepped inside the holding cell and he had the complete attention of the two creatures.
Kun, who was rescued by the big guy on the side, said, “Do you probably think that, by capturing us, you can get any information? We are not the zergs, we Komodas can sense each other’s presence and track each other down through the galaxy. You brought us here, is a chance that we needed. Soon, our people will come here, and lay waste to you and the rest of this planet.”
He sounded pretty confident and Shi Lang said, “I see. Well, thank you.”
His calm attitude made the two lizardmen think what the catch was, because usually if someone found that their base has been discovered, then they will probably be shit scared. Yet, in front of them stood this guy, unaffected by the threats. Kun asked, “What gives you such confidence?”
Shi Lang smiled and said, “Let me explain to you what is the secret to my confidence.”
He manipulated his communicator and projected a rune image in the void for the two of them to see. He smiled and said, “Let me introduce you to isolation rune. This rune is cast by mixing my blood, and some other materials mixed with it. These materials cover your body into a thin layer of spiritual energy and which in turn, isolate you from the rest of the world.”
The two creatures were shocked and Shi Lang continued, “Your tails were left behind and the rest of the place was burned down to the ground, leaving nothing behind. This was done intentionally so that your people can understand that the spade is not something they can catch up to.”
What followed after this was a gruesome session of torture and wails. The whole base seemed to be shaking from tremors. The whole team was mourning for the two captives, they could not even imagine what methods Shi Lang was using on them to make them give such a response.
Milo and Sonic made a bet and they sent Sparrow to check what was going on inside the hell. What Sparrow saw inside the cell shocked her to the core. She first went to the restroom and flushed her stomach. Then after she almost puked out her insides she made her way back to the meeting room with a pale face.
She was asked what she saw and the girl answered, “Boss, took Kun and removed his skin, then he put the guy inside the medical capsule filled with salt water, at the same time he ran scans on his body to learn about the neural network. Then he poked the big guy with those creepy needles and stimulated his pain receptors. The rest you can imagine. That kind of pain can make you shit crazy. What’s scary is that boss does not let them go crazy.”
Sonic said, “I win, I said pain stimulation.”
Milo sighed and they kept hearing the screams. After a couple of hours, Shi Lang came out of the holding cells and went to take a shower first. His body was originating a cold aura that nobody on the team wanted to face. While the bots were assigned to clean up the mess left behind.
…
Shi Lang was sitting in his chair inside the meeting room, with his head leaned back and gaze locked to the ceiling. Nobody knew what he was thinking so they did not disturb him. Suddenly, Shi Lang said, “How about we deal with the leftover Zerg rebellions this time?”
The team was shocked, and Milo asked, “Sir, did you not leave that task to be handled by the first fleet?”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “I did, however, the rebels I am talking about are not inside the federal territory but in the Komoda Space.”
The team was shocked to the point where they wished they could just scold Shi Lang. However, the boss never joked. He will really go to find trouble in the Komodian space. Sparrow did not say anything and walked over to stand behind Shi Lang.
Shi Lang said, “You do not have to say anything right now, take your time and think. Whatever your response is will be my invitation, but it will not affect the team as it is.”
That said, the room became silent and Shi Lang leaned back in his chair to wait for their answer.