"Wow! I'm so scared!" Kanhua's eyes flashed with menace, and he was about to retort fiercely when Gu Xiechen hastily made a gesture to him.

Silencing himself out of necessity, Kanhua let out a few cold laughs. Gu Xiechen gestured for Ducart to remain calm and said lightly, "Ducart, we are in the same boat now; if one of us messes up, we'll both be trapped here! Let's work together to get back to Earth first, and then we can settle our scores. How about it?"

Hesitating for a moment, Ducart cautiously backed up a few steps with Lily, putting distance between himself and the baring-teeth Kanhua. He said calmly, "That's a possibility. What's your current situation?"

Gu Xiechen pointed toward the inky black rock layers outside the command module's viewport and sighed helplessly, "It should be our current situation... Well, to sum it up, all the electronic instruments on the warship are completely destroyed, leaving only the hull intact. The hull is currently buried deep underground. I sensed it—there is no life sign on this planet."

After a moment of silence, Ducart stroked Lily's soft, thick hair and said in a low voice, "Your subordinates are forbidden from making any move that threatens Lily or me!"

Gu Xiechen raised his right hand and chuckled, "I swear by the names of my mother and father!" He shot Kanhua a fierce glare.

Kanhua crooked his mouth, tilted his head in contemplation for a while, and finally sighed, "Fine, I'll swear by the name of my Master... My Master wouldn't even believe this oath... Hmm, I'll swear by the first woman I ever liked... Alright, if you cooperate nicely in repairing the warship, I won't touch a single hair on your heads before we get back to Earth!"

Ducart reacted quickly, shouting sharply, "You are forbidden from laying a hand on us until Lily and I are safely returned to Mars!"

Kanhua stared blankly for a moment, then angrily rubbed his nose and mumbled under his breath, "Is my reputation really that bad?"

Holmes, who had already conjured a fifty-millimeter 'sniper rifle,' silently nodded toward Kanhua without taking the muzzle off Ducart's body.

Glaring at Holmes in frustration, Kanhua helplessly raised both hands, "Fine, I swear by Jiao's name, I won't touch you until you and this little chick are safely back on Mars!"

Staring intently at Kanhua, clearly unconvinced, Ducart’s eyes—which resembled robotic electronic optics—flickered with red light for a full quarter of an hour. After astronomical, precise analysis and calculation, carefully discerning the changes in Kanhua's facial muscles and expression, Ducart slowly nodded, "I believe this oath... I can see you care for her deeply?"

Gu Xiechen frowned and muttered under his breath, "Love? With that kind of time, first consider how to fix the warship!"

Kanhua angrily flipped Ducart off with both middle fingers and cursed coarsely, "None of your damn business, **!"

"Very good!" Ducart nodded seriously. "I believe your oath!"

Raising his right hand solemnly, Ducart said coldly, "I swear by my mother's name, Song, I will use my full strength to help you repair the warship, provided you guarantee my safe return to Mars!"

Gu Xiechen extended his hand toward Ducart: "Deal! Back on Heaven Star, I realized you're a mechanical genius! Your Boundary Puppets are quite impressive!"

Ducart gripped Gu Xiechen’s palm firmly, squeezing down with great force. Lily, on the other hand, lifted her head proudly and smiled coldly, "Of course, Xiao is the best!"

"The best!" Kanhua muttered in a strange, mocking tone from the side, thrusting his hips forward twice aggressively. Lily’s face flushed with anger, and she turned away from him.

The force in Ducart's palm descended like an avalanche, a colossal pressure capable of crushing alloy ingots into dust. Gu Xiechen’s palm drifted lightly, pulling away from Ducart's hand as smoothly as an oiled eel. With a thud, Ducart’s right palm made solid contact with Gu Xiechen’s, creating a sound like muffled thunder.

"Fast hands!" Ducart looked at Gu Xiechen in surprise.

"Strong hands!" Gu Xiechen smiled slightly at Ducart and gestured to Holmes and Linghu: "Check all the life support pods; see how much longer the nutrient fluid can sustain the brothers... Hmm... the warship's life support system is completely destroyed. If it's not absolutely necessary, keep the brothers resting in the pods. We need to fix the life support system before the residual air in the warship is depleted." Holmes and Linghu responded with worried looks and rushed out of the command module.

Lily's eyes lit up, and she tugged hard on Ducart’s sleeve: "Xiao..."

Ducart immediately covered Lily's mouth, and she hastily fell silent. Gu Xiechen and Kanhua's eyes brightened, both looking at Ducart simultaneously. Gu Xiechen said warmly, "Ducart, you have a way to fix the life support system quickly? Hehe, don't forget, you are on the same ship with us now."

After a brief pause, Ducart stated calmly, "I need various parts and equipment... Are there any on this warship?"

Glancing deeply at Ducart, Gu Xiechen chuckled lightly, "There should be quite a few matching components in the storage bay... However, all the circuit boards and chips have been fried, so..."

Ducart nodded and said dismissively, "Give me the most rudimentary production line, and I can manually fabricate the necessary circuit boards and chips. That's not difficult for me."

"Understood!" Gu Xiechen nodded and waved his hand: "Kanhua, take Ducart to the lower operational sector. I remember there are a few integrated machine tools there."

As Ducart was about to leave the command module, pulling Lily along, Gu Xiechen suddenly spoke with a smile, "Lily, why don't you stay here and keep me company? Hmm, Ducart needs to work without distractions!"

Lily frowned and clutched Ducart’s sleeve tightly. Ducart’s brows furrowed, and he shot an angry look at Gu Xiechen. But before he could voice his anger, heavy footsteps sounded, and Moli Qing walked into the command module carrying the wildly flailing and struggling Boluobolu. Mo Lihong, Xin Jia, and others followed in single file right after.

Over five hundred burly figures crowded more than half of the command module. Ducart felt the obscure, powerful auras emanating from Moli Qing and the others, and he glared irritably at Gu Xiechen. He pressed down hard on Lily's shoulder, smiling, "Lily, stay here and keep an eye on this fellow. Don't let him secretly set up traps to calculate against us."

Hearing Ducart’s words, Lily immediately nodded seriously, her beautiful eyes fixed unblinkingly on Gu Xiechen’s entire form. Gu Xiechen smiled, bowed slightly, and his gaze swept over Boluobolu being dragged in: "Hehe, and who is this little friend...? Hmm, this one doesn't look human?"

Boluobolu shrieked several times, staring in terror at the countless tall figures in the massive command module. Standing only about 1.1 meters tall, Boluobolu looked incredibly small; even one of Xin Jia's arms was thicker than his entire body. Boluobolu cried out anxiously and fearfully, but clearly, his language was not one that Gu Xiechen understood.

"This is a big problem; we can't communicate!" Gu Xiechen frowned and sighed resignedly.

Ducart, who had just reached the door of the command module, turned around and silently pulled a silver instrument, palm-sized, from his belt: "Multifunctional Brainwave Collection and Exchange Device—my improved version. Collect the brainwaves from this little guy's language center and inject them into the corresponding area of your own brain. Unless you're an idiot, you'll be able to communicate with him in three minutes!"

With a flick of his wrist, the brainwave collector shot toward Gu Xiechen in a silver flash. Grasping the delicate instrument, Gu Xiechen raised his eyebrows in surprise: "A good piece of equipment. It seems you used something like this when the Earth Federation and the Romans first met to ensure smooth communication between the two sides. However, I heard the brainwave device used then was much larger than this?"

Ducart said lightly, "I modified it; the performance is naturally stronger than the original version!"

With a slight wave, Gu Xiechen weighed the instrument in his hand and smiled, "In that case, why don't we learn this fellow's language together before you get back to work?"

This was a gesture, Gu Xiechen showing that he did not consider Ducart an outsider, a way to compensate for the 'damage' caused by making Lily stay behind as a hostage. Ducart certainly had no reason to refuse Gu Xiechen's suggestion; he made the instrument, so he naturally had the right to use it.

Ignoring the frantic struggling and twisting of the terrified, blue-faced Boluobolu, Gu Xiechen pressed the instrument onto his head. After nearly half an hour of busy work and feeling slightly dizzy, Gu Xiechen and the others had mastered the so-called 'Star Alliance Common Tongue' used by Boluobolu.

Seated high up on a tall chair, Gu Xiechen looked down at the trembling, huddled Boluobolu on the floor and smiled, "Respected Mr. Boluobolu? Please don't be afraid; we are a group of kind, peace-loving, human-rights-respecting, law-abiding good people!"

"Hah!" Kanhua, hearing Gu Xiechen's words, nearly choked with laughter. He grabbed Ducart and ran toward the lower work bay.

Boluobolu, who had already taken off his protective suit, looked mournfully at Gu Xiechen, his large eyes full of grievance. Good people? Were there such good people in the Star Alliance? Without a word, they pounced on him, dragged his spaceship out of space—that was one thing—but these people had actually disassembled his ship by hand! "Bandits!" Boluobolu muttered with deep resentment.

"Uh!" Gu Xiechen stared at Boluobolu in astonishment, rubbing his nose with a touch of annoyance, and gave a helpless, bitter smile, "No, you misunderstood. We ran into a small problem, so we had to use this rather impolite method to ask for your help. So, although our means were a bit rough, we had no ill intentions."

Smiling gently, Gu Xiechen crossed his legs, pulled out a bottle of Gold Foil Brandy from his pouch, and offered it to Boluobolu: "Hmm, fifty-year-old Gold Foil Brandy... Care for a sip?"

Boluobolu's eyes widened suddenly, and he sprang off the floor nimbly, snatching the bottle from Gu Xiechen's hand. He professionally flicked the bottle, made of natural crystal, and mumbled softly, "Aristocratic display, hmm, a wine bottle made of natural crystal, very extravagant. Only true high nobility use bottles like this!"