With a light chuckle, Fuyao fanned himself gently. Gu Xichen said solemnly to Fuya.Ming, "Polite, polite. Just some insignificant, low-tier tricks, forgive my amateur display!"

Jin, holding a goblet of fine wine, spoke coldly, "Insignificant, low-tier tricks managed to slip past the defense system of Planet Yafike... Hmph. If at least half the fleet commanders in the Star Alliance heard you say that, they’d probably be so ashamed they’d commit suicide."

Gu Xichen merely smiled without speaking. Guided by a male servant, he stepped toward the seat immediately to the left of Fuya.Ming.

Fuya.Ming was about to ask Gu Xichen to introduce his subordinates when one of the twenty-odd men in red uniforms standing behind Jin, the one named Da Jin, suddenly grunted and pointed at Xin Jia, shouting, "Hey, big fellow, you look strong. Come on, give it a try!"

Fuya.Ming lowered her head and remained silent. Jin pursed her lips in a strange smile, her beautiful eyes constantly assessing Gu Xichen from head to toe.

Gu Xichen instantly understood. This must be a scene pre-arranged between Fuya.Ming and Jin, right? Or perhaps Jin arranged it on her own initiative? If he hadn't brought Xin Jia and the others, this Da Jin would probably have directly challenged Gu Xichen or Hua (the character I can't type with my Wubi input method, so I'll skip it from now on).

Xin Jia's eyes lit up, and he cackled, "I’m just afraid you can’t handle my strength!"

Da Jin rolled his strange eyes, snorted two puffs of white vapor from his nostrils, and leaped playfully over the long dining table, throwing a punch down toward Xin Jia in mid-air.

Xin Jia scoffed a few times. He casually raised his right hand and caught Da Jin’s full-force punch in his grip. With a muffled thud, a burst of strong wind erupted from Xin Jia’s palm. The punch Da Jin had thrown with all his might was firmly held in Xin Jia’s hand. The huge body stood stiffly suspended in the air.

"Your strength is too weak!" Xin Jia roared, shaking his right arm and throwing Da Jin clear across the room.

The banquet hall shuddered violently. Da Jin crashed onto the floor, leaving a pit nearly a meter deep, and couldn't get up for a long moment.

"Damn it!" Xiao Jin, along with the other twenty-odd companions, took several steps forward, ready to fight.

"Stop! We were just testing each other. If your strength isn't as good as theirs, don't blame them for embarrassing you!" Jin sharply halted her impulsive subordinates, a peculiar smile spreading across her exotic face. "Xichen, esteemed Guest Gu Xichen from the Earth Federation? Allow me to introduce myself—I am the Young Leader of the Broken Hook Ability Group... We are the Third Ability Group of the Star Alliance."

With a faint nod and a smile, Gu Xichen replied, "My apologies, I am indeed unworldly. Jin... Miss of the Broken Hook Ability Group."

Fuya.Ming looked at Gu Xichen in surprise. Jin’s exquisitely beautiful, bewitching face scrunched up. Da Jin, who had been thrown to the ground and was dizzy, cried out in disbelief, "What? Miss? Is our Young Leader a woman? Impossible! How could she look like a woman? Tsk, our Young Leader has no chest... Hah, the women of our race, their chests are massive."

Fuya.Ming was silent. Gu Xichen was silent. Hua’s shifty eyes only darted around Jin's chest.

Jin’s face cycled through shades of green and white. With an angry flick of her right hand, the wine glass in it flashed a cold light, smashing directly against Da Jin’s face.

The small wine glass contained immense power. Da Jin’s huge body was sent flying over three meters by the impact of the glass and he crashed onto the floor again.

Fuya.Ming spread her hands and sighed silently. This was big trouble now.

Jin slowly stood up. Smiling sweetly, she hopped onto the dining table and walked right up to Gu Xichen, squatting before him. She leaned close to his face, glaring fiercely into his eyes, and hissed each word, "The Broken Hook Ability Group, also known as the Star Alliance’s Third Largest Pirate Group... Esteemed Guest Gu Xichen, which eye of yours spotted that I am a woman?"

A pirate group? Gu Xichen suddenly understood. No wonder Jin had so many ability users among her subordinates. To be the third largest pirate group in the Star Alliance, if they didn't have so many power users, they would have been wiped out by the Star Alliance regulars long ago! However, Jin's question was genuinely difficult to answer. Should he tell her that his divine sense had scanned her body thoroughly? Even knowing that her underwear was a semi-transparent, very seductive light purple little thing?

Da Jin, still smarting from his previous lesson, scrambled up from the floor, staggering, and asked curiously, "Yeah, how did you figure out the Young Leader was a woman? Hey, I’ve followed the Young Leader for at least three years, and I never realized she was a woman! The Young Leader doesn't have any feminine qualities at all!"

Jin’s face convulsed, and her beautiful little face turned completely dark.

Slowly, slowly, Jin’s right hand pressed hard onto Gu Xichen’s nose, with enough force that it looked like she intended to push his nose entirely into his face. Jin said coldly, word by word, "No one can mock me and remain alive and well... Regardless of whether you come from the Earth Federation or elsewhere, whether you are a stranded mercenary or hold some other identity, whether you were hired by Sister Fuya.Ming or are part of some elaborate conspiracy... We duel."

Gu Xichen looked at Jin with surprise, then gave a wry smile, "Another duel? It seems like I just finished thirteen duels yesterday!"

Shaking his head firmly, Gu Xichen chuckled lightly, "Apologies, I decline to duel you. Firstly, having just finished thirteen duels, challenging me now certainly violates principles of fairness. Secondly, I do not lay hands on women... My personal bottom line is this: I do not fight women!"

Pfft! A spray of saliva, scented faintly with wine and some strange, subtle fragrance, splashed across Gu Xichen's face.

Jin laughed strangely. "I insulted you, so, we duel! You won't fight women? You can just pretend not to see me as a woman."

Fuya.Ming jumped up anxiously and scolded in a low voice, "Jin!"

"Oh, okay, okay!" Jin waved cheerfully at Fuya.Ming. She laughed wickedly, "Relax, relax. I'll beat him half to death and that will be the end of it. For Sister Fuya's sake, I’ll just break that thing all men have, and then I’ll let you go."

Gu Xichen was stunned. This woman was too savage!

Hua sidled up to Gu Xichen, staring at Jin’s small face, and said in a bizarre voice, "Break my junior brother's thing? Oh, please don't. He’s still a virgin! Hee hee, girl, even though you have no chest now, you’re at least flat-chested, right? Believe it or not, I can turn your flat chest into a concave, bowl-shaped bust!"

Gu Xichen felt the hairs on his neck stand up. As expected, Hua never spoke a kind word. What a bastard!

Jin’s face changed from black to purple. She suddenly jumped up and roared with laughter, "Good, good, you’ve got guts! It’s been a long time since I met a man who dared to talk to me like that."

Gu Xichen sighed softly, "Please, Hua isn't human, okay?"

Jin fumbled inside the sleeves of her long robe for a moment and pulled out two transparent crystals the size of fists, tossing them onto the dining table. She sneered, "Hick, you folks have never seen this kind of treasure, have you? If you have the guts, duel me! We'll bet 100 pieces of these high-grade Fire Source Energy Stones!"

Gu Xichen stared blankly at the so-called high-grade Fire Source Energy Stones, then glanced strangely at Hua.

These so-called Fire Source Energy Stones were nothing more than Zakala Energy Crystals mixed with a bit of fire-attribute spiritual energy—what people in Asia called Fire Spirit Stones. For this voyage, Gu Xichen and Hua had stored at least cubic meters of Zakala Energy Crystals in their portable storage bags, and of this completely transparent, high-grade variety, they must have had tens of thousands!

Jin chuckled, appearing stingy. She taunted Gu Xichen provocatively, "Well? Hick, never seen this high-grade stuff before, have you? Oh, right, you probably don't even know what Primordial Energy is, so how could you recognize these high-grade Primordial Energy Stones?"

Strutting a few steps back and forth on the dining table, Jin pointed at Gu Xichen and laughed, "Forget it, I won't bully you. I am a Six-Star Venerable certified by the Star Alliance Ability Council. If you think you aren't my match, just apologize sincerely and then quietly leave the Yafike Kingdom. The reward Sister Fuya.Ming owes you will naturally be voided."

Giving Fuya.Ming a meaningful look, Jin added with a smile, "I don't think you're qualified to cooperate with Sister Fuya.Ming, really. Sister Fuya.Ming doesn't need allies like you."

Sighing deeply, Gu Xichen looked at Fuya.Ming’s pair of eyes, quiet as still water, yet constantly darting toward him. For some inexplicable reason, he felt a sudden, strange impulse.

Pulling out a pristine white handkerchief to wipe the saliva from his face, Gu Xichen stood up, casually clipping his Fuyao fan onto his collar. He smiled at Jin, "Hick? Little girl, who's the hick? This kind of scrap stone, even the children in my hometown play with it as a toy."

He slipped his hand into his sleeve and slowly pulled out a piece of extremely high-quality fire-attribute spirit stone. Then another, and another...

In the short time it took to drink a cup of tea, to the growing astonishment of both Fuya.Ming and Jin, Gu Xichen leisurely produced over 300 pieces of top-grade fire-attribute spirit stones.

Hua, on the side, let out a few smug laughs. He swung his sleeve grandly, and with a crash, a small mountain of crystal stones, over three meters high with a base diameter of seven or eight meters, instantly appeared before everyone.

"Heavens! So many Primordial Energy Stones!"

Jin shrieked. With a wave of her hand, she pulled out a cyan longsword from who knows where, and aggressively shouted at Gu Xichen, "Robbery! Broken Hook Pirates, Robbery! Men stand on the left, women on the right, pretty boys in the middle! Hand over all the cash you have, all bank credit cards, all deeds to property... If you're nobility, state your price and step forward!"

As the practiced robbery jargon spilled out fluently, Gu Xichen was taken aback. This woman was indeed formidable.

But in the next blink of an eye, Jin’s expression shifted to one of utter shock, and she screamed, "So many Primordial Energy Stones! Where did you store them? Are you... Space ability users?"

Gu Xichen and Hua exchanged a look. Gu Xichen nodded vigorously. Yes, space ability users, so what?

Jin, who had been bristling with aggression moments before, suddenly became charming and radiant. She carefully squatted on the dining table, smiling at Gu Xichen, "Respected Guest Xichen Gu, I am willing to hire you at a high salary as the Chief Guest Elder of our Broken Hook Pirate Group. Are you willing?"

Gu Xichen was astonished.

Fuya.Ming’s face turned pale with anger. This Jin was too shameless.