The Highest Bounty

Chapter 65: A New Crisis

Feng Yuan was situated on a unique astronomical location near the Gray Star Sectors, making it a place where large amounts of biological researchers and pharmacologists flock to. A place with the presence of pharmacologists signifies a place with an astronomical amount of wealth.

Of course, only a handful of people knew that it was precisely because of its location that it used to be desolate before the federal government officially took it in as part of its own. This was due to the apprehension everyone had, thinking that one day the Gray Star Sectors virus would spread all the way to this planet. What would they do then?

Safe to say this did not happen. Ever since Fengyuan was integrated into the federal government, it had blossomed into a flourishing planet in only a few years. Today, the human population had broken through the thirty-billion mark.

Fengyuan’s port had been one of the most flourishing starports in all the star sectors, even Skyriver Sector. Therefore, Fengyuan’s federal government division needed to guarantee the safety of the port’s ships and keep them out of harm’s way from all sorts of threats.

For the authorities of a planet, they welcome every guest with the power of consumerism no matter their identity. One could be an Interstellar Pirate or Interstellar Hunter. Perhaps even someone from Dark Sectors. They only had one request from these guests—never cause trouble within their jurisdiction.

However, the Army was a completely different department than the government. They were mainly in charge of capturing wanted fugitives and putting them in jail. When necessary, they would carry out executions.

Of course, conflicts would arise as both departments had different responsibilities.

The Army often spotted Interstellar Pirates’ ships at all kinds of planets’ ports. However, due to limited power, they were not allowed to detain the ships directly. Even touching them was a violation of federal law. The only way they could capture fugitives was to capture the wanted criminals themselves.

But, if the wanted criminal hid under the asylum of other forces, the Army would have to think twice.

Hermean Alliance was undoubtedly an enormous organization that had the federal government and the Army extremely worried.

As a matter of fact, Hermean Alliance housed plenty of wanted criminals from different ends of the galaxy.

Almost every well-established Interstellar Pirate team had at least one pharmacologist. If they were to purchase medicine directly, the entire pirate team might go bankrupt before they were able to make a third of their journey.

No one was willing to offend the pharmacologist alliance. If the entire alliance joined hands with the medicine refinement factory to go out on a strike, the entire Dragon Soar Cosmic might lose trillions of people to all kinds of diseases in less than a month. This repercussion was one that the federal government could not bear, much more so for the Army.

Also, in order to nurture soldiers, the Army often cooperated with the Hermean Alliance.

Hence, if a fugitive went under Hermean Alliance’s asylum, their only option was to ignore the fugitive’s existence.

Gu Ding and Liliath were currently enjoying such privilege. The two had strolled through the market and trading center near Hermean Alliance the entire morning.

Although some army personnel glowered at the duo, they were only glaring without taking any actions. Liliath would occasionally pull a funny face to provoke them. The army personnel could only grit their teeth and ignore, turning their faces to the side.

Liliath bought a lot of things along the way. From what Gu Ding could see, the majority of the items were frivolous purchases. Liliath even bought certain things with absolutely no idea what they were for. With regards to her actions, Gu Ding could only sigh in his heart. “Dad’s right. It’s so hard to understand what a woman is thinking.”

Of course, Liliath’s actions had piqued Gu Ding’s curiosity in finding out how big her inventory really was.

After obtaining Cooper’s wristwatch, Neptune helped Gu Ding move everything into his inventory. He had also integrated Cooper’s wristwatch inventory into Gu Ding’s, expanding Gu Ding’s inventory to more than 120 cubic meters. However, Gu Ding was sure that Liliath’s inventory was at least 500 cubic meters because Liliath had easily placed a beast’s carcass inside before. The beast was at least twenty meters high. Its total body volume should be at least 400 cubic meters.

“Let’s have lunch before we continue.” Although Gu Ding was not tired, he thought that it would be a better idea to have lunch and take a quick break.

“Alright then.” Even though Liliath was not done shopping, both Gu Ding and she had eaten compressed food for days now. After eating all kinds of rich and abundant food on Fengyuan the last two days, she found it extremely difficult to reject any sort of delicacy she was presented with.

Both of them were about to step into a nearby restaurant when Gu Ding noticed a familiar-looking car driving approaching them.

“Larry, what brings you here?” Gu Ding recognized Larry’s car straight away.

“Get in. I’ll send you to the port right now. You have to leave Fengyuan immediately!” Panic was written all over Larry’s face.

“What happened?” Gu Ding recalled telling Larry to come tomorrow.

“An Interstellar Hunter was asking about you at the port early this morning. From what Uncle Bobby was saying, that fellow’s name is Ter. He’s a Rank 6 Gene Body; a fearless and powerful man. He reportedly captured an Interstellar Pirate with a hundred million bounty on his head in the past. He also has a nickname. You may have heard it before—The Ripper.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of this fellow before. He’s an Interstellar Hunter with a really bad reputation. After capturing Interstellar Pirates, he likes to snap the bones of the captured before handing them over to the Federation Army.” Gu Ding was no stranger to this Interstellar Hunter who had quite a reputation in Skyriver Sector. “But his targets are typically people with a bounty of more than fifty million Star Credits. Why is he coming after me? Are you mistaken?”

“I’m not. Uncle Bobby said that a wealthy fellow wants to purchase your Grey-faced Buzzard. If you are caught and are found guilty of your crimes, all rights to your spaceship will be stripped by the federal government and they will hold a public auction for the spaceship. That wealthy man has connections within the federal government. He can go through internal procedures to obtain the spaceship. Provided that you’re sent to the federal prison. Right now, you’re under Hermean Alliance’s asylum, the Army can’t do anything to you here. However, Interstellar Hunters are independent bodies. They only need to be responsible for their own actions. Hence, if Ter attacks, Hermean Alliance’s asylum will be pointless. Uncle Bobby said that judging from Ter’s excitement, he can tell that he must have charged the wealthy businessman an exorbitant amount as a hiring fee.”

“I understand now.” After hearing those words, Gu Ding broke into a grin. “Larry, Lili, and I are not leaving tomorrow either. We’ll depart the day after tomorrow.”

“But...” Larry wanted to say something, but Gu Ding cut him off.

“The last ability evolution has made me stronger again. I wonder if I can win fighting a real Rank 6 Gene Body martial arts practitioner this time.” Gu Ding was looking forward to this fight.