Tie Dan didn’t feel any heartache either; he just waved his hand.
"Swipe."
Tie Dan’s vision blurred, and he was once again yanked by Spider Xi into the captain’s room. This time it was packed; besides the uniformed ship girls, there was a whole crowd of uniformed Demons, even old man Xianwei was in a uniform, poking his head around. Looked like the legion was holding a combat conference.
Spider Xi acted as the emcee, signaled the spotlight to shine on Tie Dan, projected his Primordial Spirit, and gently introduced him while holding a microphone,
"This is Brother Xuantian from Mars. As you all saw, just now he paid the drone activation fee on behalf of our army. Please thank Brother Xuantian."
The Demons all nodded one after another,
"Thank you, Brother Xuantian."
Tie Dan also nodded,
"...You’re welcome."
Spider Xi continued,
"Brother Xuantian wishes to hire the legion and have my ship carry out an escort mission to Earth. But since this route passes through a large number of high‑risk Cosmic Domains that can’t be verified by the Jizhou’s intelligent staff‑officer system, we are now, based on the ’Legion Internal Civic X Movement Regulations,’ convening a Zhuge Bi campaign tactics discussion conference, hoping all comrades will offer suggestions and vote collectively on whether to accept this contract."
For a moment the hall buzzed with noise; voices of all kinds of species and dense smart translations echoed around, wailing ghosts and howling Gods, unbearably noisy, keeping Spider Xi running all over the place. The Jizhou was sprawled in a chair with its legs crossed, head tilted, watching the dog‑heads, human‑heads, and pig‑heads arguing. Old man Xianwei was going around asking people what Zhuge Bi even was...
"Your legion is always like this?"
The Jizhou replied nonchalantly,
"Normally they just listen to me. But what you’re proposing is a dead end. Since we’re taking them to die, we at least have to put it to a vote so they can agree to die themselves."
"But they don’t seem to think it’s all that dangerous..."
Tie Dan watched the schemes being voted on with suspicion and found that the legion’s argument wasn’t about whether to go to Earth but how to go. Whether to charge straight in a line or take a huge detour and sneak around.
The Jizhou explained,
"Our original mission was to come conquer the parallel Earth and establish a legion colony.
But the moment the vanguard fleet passed through the gate, it got ambushed by a herd of beasts near Jupiter. We were caught off guard from the start, lost a huge number of main battleships and escorts, and in the end had no choice but to sacrifice the rest of the fleet to cover our retreat. Those Great Demon Beasts were busy fighting over the immigrant ships, and that’s the only reason I could escape with the flagship.
So all the supplies and provisions we brought were lost near the Star Gate. Being stuck in the asteroid belt collecting resources now is a last resort. If you hadn’t helped, who knows how long it would’ve taken just to repair the hull.
If this keeps up, never mind that the human fleet is about to come knocking; those local Demon Gods could find us and wipe us out at any time. We’re even running short on supplies. Sooner or later the crew would have to go into mass hibernation and wait to die. Keep waiting and there’s only one road left: death.
Now that you’ve swiped your card to pay the repair bill and are even willing to shell out more to pull us out of the kill zone and let us carry out our original mission, of course we’re willing."
Oh, so they were basically treating him like a rich sucker? Whatever, the credit card belonged to Liu Xiaoliu anyway. What did that have to do with Tie Dan...
But Tie Dan still had other questions,
"Aren’t you and the Divine Sect on the same side? Didn’t you say you were still in touch with the God Sect Leader, that Sergeant guy? The local legion won’t help you?"
The Jizhou fell silent for a moment,
"That person... is extremely dangerous."
"Dangerous?"
The Jizhou glanced at Tie Dan,
"We came to colonize only because we received the local legion’s signal. But not only did they fail to meet us behind the gate, they even lured us straight into the beasts’ encirclement.
And when we broke out of the encirclement and hid in the asteroid belt, that guy suddenly showed up. I’m afraid he calculated it all out: he wanted to profit as a fisherman, swallow the legion, seize the Titan, and force an engagement with me."
Okay, that really did fit that guy’s style, but still...
"So how did you beat him? Is Spider Xi really that badass?"
The Jizhou shook its head,
"Xi isn’t his match. He was seriously injured in just one move. That’s why he sounds so weak and listless now; didn’t you notice?"
"What!"
Tie Dan was shocked. Damn!? In just five hundred years that guy got this busted?! His level‑up speed was even faster than Tie Dan’s!
The Jizhou flicked its fingers and projected a sheep.
"But just as he was about to breach my firewall, this unidentified life form showed up to play with him, and he just followed it away."
"..."
"The vote passed."
Spider Xi’s gentle voice sounded in his ear,
"After a full vote at the legion’s Zhuge Bi conference, we’ve decided to depart immediately, charge straight for the Star Gate, start the Jump acceleration orbit before we’re sunk, punch through the atmosphere, seize the beachhead, and conquer Earth."