Chapter 480 – Fixed Resonance, Level ⑧ Power

“Sonis, long time no see…”

A man approached Sonis on his own accord.

He was dressed in a finely tailored double-breasted suit, with golden-patterned boots. Handsome and tall, he looked nothing like a marauding space pirate, but rather like a noble gentleman heading to a grand banquet.

“I didn’t expect you to dare show up…”

The man, who appeared to be a noble, lowered his voice with a smile as he reached Sonis, “Alfonso was killed in your territory, and they say even the body wasn’t found. Yet, you are unharmed, still as beautiful and radiant as a rose…”

Sonis looked at the man in front of her and said calmly, “Where did you hear about this?”

The handsome man chuckled, disdainfully replying, “Do you think you can keep such a big event under wraps? Plenty of people know about it…”

Sonis glanced around and indeed noticed several people in the crowd were eying her with strange, amused looks, as if waiting for a spectacle.

“Alfonso is dead, regardless of whether you had anything to do with it. With Sea Wolf’s temperament, do you think he’d let you go?”

The handsome man raised the glass in his hand and took a refined sip before continuing, “If I were you, I’d be seeking remedies by now…”

“Oh.”

Sonis lifted her eyelids slightly, her expression unchanging as she said, “Teach me, how should I remedy this?”

The handsome man’s eyes noticeably lit up at Sonis’s response.

“Fool, of course, by relying on us.

Sea Wolf is strong, but without us, he couldn’t even take action on this matter. As long as we plead for you, no matter how much Sea Wolf wants to pursue it, he’d have to swallow his pride for now…

As for the conditions under which we’ll help you…”

As the handsome man said this, the façade of nobility instantly fell away, his demeanor turning lewd and sinister. His eyes roamed over Sonis’s body with a burning gaze, fully revealing his ugly nature as a space pirate.

“The people here are many, and your demon grease pirate assets are hardly enough to share. Your body, repay with your Iron Rose body…

There’s no shortage of those interested in you. If you don’t mind, we can head to the back room right now…”

As the handsome man spoke, Sonis’s expression didn’t change much, but a tall figure in armor standing behind her took a sudden step forward and swung a hand toward the handsome man’s face.

The handsome man reacted, instinctively trying to dodge.

But the figure swiftly removed the mask from their face.

“Dare to dodge?”

A cold, fierce voice sounded. The handsome man froze the moment he recognized the face beneath the mask.

“Smack-“

The slap landed squarely on the handsome man’s face, making him stumble backward.

“Alfonso… you’re not dead?!”

The handsome man, reeling from the slap, seemed unfazed by the pain, his eyes widening as he stared at the person in front of him.

“What? Do you really want me dead that badly?”

The man, known as Alfonso, casually tossed aside his mask, stepped forward, and coldly said, “The assassination attempt I faced on Sonis’s territory, you arranged that, didn’t you?”

“That’s nonsense!”

The handsome man blurted out instinctively, his face rapidly changing color on the swollen side. He gritted his teeth, turned quickly without another word, and vanished into the crowd.

“Alfonso” watched the man’s retreating figure with a cold sneer, then turned to survey the surroundings, causing the nearby space pirates to avert their eyes in fear.

As the buzzing noise of chatter resumed around them, “Alfonso” returned to Sonis’s side with a blank expression.

“The news travels fast. Within three days, word of Alfonso’s death has spread…”

Lu Yuan said to Sonis lightly.

The “Alfonso” who seemed to come back from the dead was, of course, Lu Yuan in disguise.

Intent on seizing the Life Source Ore, there was no better means than becoming directly involved.

“Within the space pirate community, it’s quite normal to have a mix of different types and to plant spies among each other…”

Sonis replied calmly, “I have fewer spies under me, as they are all women.”

Lu Yuan casually observed the surroundings. Many eyes were still on him, and he could hear numerous discussions about his “death” amongst the crowd.

Lu Yuan was completely unfazed.

Alfonso’s death was, after all, just hearsay for others.

What truth could be more convincing than a living person standing right in front of them?

Moreover, he didn’t need to fool the space pirates for long, just long enough for their raiding operation to be successfully carried out, and that would be a success.

Given the Spirit Devourer Clan’s powerful disguise talent, this was particularly easy to achieve.

“It seems Sea Wolf holds a lot of power among your group. I slapped that guy in public, a dignified level 7 pilot, and he still managed to hold back such humiliation…”

Lu Yuan scanned the crowd to find the handsome man he had just slapped and noticed that the man had already hidden in a corner.

Hearing Lu Yuan mention “Sea Wolf,” Sonis’s expression became more serious, and she whispered, “Sea Wolf’s methods are extremely formidable. Everyone here fears him.

Moreover, reaching level 8 as a pilot… isn’t something easily done.”

Having inherited Alfonso’s memories, Lu Yuan understood what kind of person “Sea Wolf” was, even more than Sonis.

However, he didn’t know much about Sea Wolf’s actual strength.

The relationship between Alfonso and Sea Wolf wasn’t as close as outsiders imagined.

Besides respect, Alfonso’s feelings for Sea Wolf were mostly fear and jealousy, and even an ambition to take his place.

In Alfonso’s memories, Sea Wolf’s image was overly exaggerated and distorted, making external evaluations potentially more objective.

“Oh, tell me more.”

With many of the space pirates still not present, Lu Yuan began to converse with Sonis out of idle curiosity.

Sonis thought for a moment and replied, “The reason level 7 is considered a significant threshold is not just the difference in mental power but also the Fixed Resonance capability of the mecha.”

“Fixed Resonance?!”

Lu Yuan blinked, intrigued by this new term.

“Yes,” Sonis explained. “Fixed Resonance is a special technique that imprints a pilot’s Resonance Technique onto the mecha’s module.

With a Fixed Resonance, the Resonance Technique can be activated during combat without consuming the pilot’s own energy…”

“Is that how you managed to stack your Resonance Technique?”

Lu Yuan’s eyes brightened.

During their fight, Sonis had used her Resonance Technique three times in succession, stacking her mecha’s attack frequency to an astonishing level, thereby exponentially increasing the power of her moves.

From this, Lu Yuan had even gleaned the [Demon Wind Triple Flurry] technique.

Now he understood how Sonis had achieved it.

Fixed Resonance essentially allowed the Resonance Technique to be pre-recorded and “played back” when needed.

“That’s right.”

Sonis nodded. “Sea Wolf practices the [Blood Cry] mental power cultivation method. The greatest advantage of [Blood Cry] is its ability to significantly boost combat power during a battle.

However, it has an obvious drawback. After the burst, the pilot’s mental and physical energy will be severely depleted, leading to extreme weakness…

But relying on Fixed Resonance Techniques can greatly mitigate this weakness.

Moreover, level 7 mechas can equip a maximum of two Fixed Resonance Technique modules, while level 8 mechas can hold up to five.

And if you include his own innate ability,

Theoretically…”

Sonis took a deep breath and said solemnly, “Sea Wolf could activate [Blood Cry] six times in a row, bringing his power close to level 9!”

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered, his mind shaken.

Activating [Blood Cry] once could boost power several times in a short period.

With six consecutive berserk boosts, even if the increases didn’t stack indefinitely, at least the duration of the berserk state would be significantly extended.

Thus, the “half-minute wonder” weakness of [Blood Cry] would no longer be a weakness, and in battle, it would bring endless despair to his opponents.

“And when mental power advances from level 7 to level 8, consciousness undergoes a sublimation, greatly improving both its strength and quality. Even without activating [Blood Cry], Sea Wolf’s power is beyond what an ordinary space pirate can hope to achieve…”

Sonis spoke in a low voice, “The only bit of good news is that different Resonance Techniques have varying levels of difficulty in being Fixed Resonance. [Blood Cry]’s explosive trait requires a very rare material to be fixed. Even Sea Wolf doesn’t have much of this material.

I suspect that out of his five Fixed Resonance slots, it’s unlikely that all of them are equipped with [Blood Cry]…”

Lu Yuan blinked. No wonder Alfonso was so reluctant to “burst” when they fought. He simply didn’t have a Fixed Resonance module for [Blood Cry]. If Sea Wolf himself didn’t have enough of the material, there was no way it would be allocated to Alfonso.

Alfonso’s resentment toward Sea Wolf likely stemmed partly from this.

“The research on mechas and Mech by Duoling in this part of the Starry Sky far surpasses that of our Home Planet.

Not only do they have a variety of mental power cultivation styles, they have also developed synchronization and Resonance Techniques between humans and mechas, and even technologies like Fixed Resonance. It’s truly remarkable…”

Lu Yuan had almost completely discarded the power leveling standards from his Home Planet by now.

Both the mental power cultivation methods and mecha advancements here significantly enhanced combat power below the star spirit realm.

Star Martial Arts practitioners from the Home Planet who purely pursued the star spirit realm would seem like bare-handed, underdeveloped savages here.

The Bai Family members might fare slightly better, but the gap would still be substantial.

If they came to Duoling, an eighth-level pilot might be able to contend with a tenth-level star spirit realm warrior on even terms, leveraging various advantages.

As for Lu Yuan himself, he acknowledged that compared to his former level four mental power, he was now far stronger.

As he pondered, Lu Yuan suddenly sensed a fierce and domineering wave of consciousness emanating from afar.

The air seemed to carry a faint scent of blood.

The vast cavern inside the mountain fell into an uncanny silence.

Lu Yuan glanced toward the source of the consciousness wave, his eyes narrowing slightly.

At the entrance of a passageway ahead, a semi-ethereal, blood-red wolf head appeared in the void.

The air around it shimmered faintly, and its scarlet, icy gaze coldly scrutinized everyone present.

Beneath the blood-red wolf head, a towering, burly figure was making his way slowly into the area.

Sea Wolf.

Just as Alfonso remembered, Sea Wolf was a middle-aged man in his forties.

He had the same inverted triangle-shaped eyes as Alfonso, which were slightly narrowed, constantly emitting a fierce light.

His stern, rock-like features and robust, formidable physique exuded not the least bit of Alfonso’s sinister depth; rather, he carried an indescribable domineering aura, akin to a capricious tyrant.

“So this is the mental power of level 8…”

Lu Yuan murmured quietly, his gaze fixed on the blood-red wolf head hovering above Sea Wolf’s head.

He realized he had underestimated the transformation and enhancement that cultivation methods could bring to mental power.

Judging by the imposing presence Sea Wolf displayed, the mental power of a level 8 pilot had evolved to an exceptionally high state.

In some respects, it far surpassed the star spirit realm level 10 of the Home Planet!

“Be careful…”

Sonis whispered a warning in Lu Yuan’s ear, “Sea Wolf is also highly skilled in the field of Star Martial Arts. There’s a rumor his talent in Star Martial Arts is exceptional and that he’s close to illuminating his entire natal star diagram.”

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered as he turned to give Sonis a nod.

Thanks to the [Seed of Misfortune], Sonis’s development was becoming more satisfactory to him.

Her “transformation” seemed to be progressing even faster than Lu Feng’s.

Sea Wolf’s arrival silenced the hundreds of space pirates gathered in the vast cavern.

All eyes were on him as he commanded the attention of every person.

As Sea Wolf passed, the crowd naturally parted for him.

These unruly space pirates appeared as “docile” as sheep in his presence.

Sea Wolf made his way through the crowd, eventually reaching the center of the cavern.

His cold gaze swept over the assembly, scrutinizing everyone present, and finally…

…his gaze settled on Lu Yuan.

“Alfonso.”

He spoke coldly.

Lu Yuan’s expression remained unchanged, a defiant smile spreading across his face as he made his way toward Sea Wolf.

Throughout the process, Sea Wolf’s mental power and gaze were locked onto him, unapologetically and “roughly” scrutinizing him from head to toe.

Yet, Lu Yuan felt not an inkling of nervousness.

The Spirit Devourer Clan’s perfect “replacement” ability-if it could be seen through by a lowly level 8 pilot…

Then the term “Transcendent Mythical” following his [Spirit Devourer: God and Demon Species] would be utterly meaningless.

Finally, Lu Yuan stood before Sea Wolf.

Meeting Sea Wolf’s cold eyes from such a close distance, Lu Yuan slightly lowered his head, avoiding direct eye contact.

“Someone told me… you were dead.”

Sea Wolf stated calmly, looking at him.

“Too many people wish for my death.”

Lu Yuan replied.

He slowly raised his head, glancing around, as a wild and vicious grin gradually spread across his face.

“Especially those who know I’ve been with the women they desire but can’t have… heh…”

With that, Lu Yuan cast his gaze toward Sonis in the distance, lifting his chin arrogantly, as if to flaunt his spoils of war.

Sea Wolf looked over at Sonis, his expression unchanged.

After a few seconds, he said indifferently, “Next time, take more people with you when you go out.”

“Understood.”

Lu Yuan nodded, displaying a touch of respect, before “obediently” retreating to stand beside Sea Wolf.

Clearly.

As the impostor “Alfonso,” he had not exposed any flaws so far.