Chapter 186: Cuboids

Tomahawk flew right next to a huge cuboid structure. It looked just like a discarded, enormous piece of cubic rock as it had neither a window nor a door.

The cubic structures reminded Xia Fei of the pyramids on Earth. They looked a lot like the pyramids, but they were larger in volume and looked even older.

What kind of person built this many gigantic structures in a supergravity zone? What purpose did these structures serve? Was it humans who built them?

These were all the questions floating in Xia Fei’s minds. He decided to leave the ship to investigate with his eyes, but before that, he must do a complete scan of the planet to find out if Old Porter had visited this place.

The red planet had quite a big surface area. The Tomahawk circled around it, scanning everything in detail. Because the gravity was much stronger here than before, it was not flying fast at all.

Xia Fei and Phantom stood by the window and peered out at the planet without even blinking. There were hills and valleys on this planet, meaning that there were nooks and crannies that could not be seen easily, requiring them to slow down from time to time for a closer inspection.

Time flew by, and seven hours passed in the blink of an eye.

All of a sudden, with the help of his acute perception, Xia Fei noticed that there were signs of a ship that had stopped on a plot of red soil ahead of him.

Anytime a ship wished to stop, the warp engine needed to utilize its huge horsepower, producing huge winds that would toss everything around. This plot of red dirt looked as if someone had swept it; all the dust was on one side, leaving behind a spot in the center that sank slightly into the ground.

Moreover, this was a supergravity area. Other than incredible gusts or high-performance warp engines, not much else could move dust around because of how strong the gravity was.

“Go closer to that area.”

Xia Fei commanded the Tomahawk to approach that plot of land, and it was soon right in front of him.

The ground had six divots, evidently produced by a ship’s landing gear.

“It seems that Uncle Porter has been here!” Xia Fei exclaimed.

“Yeah, it does appear to be so, but he probably already left,” Phantom added.

Xia Fei rushed toward the ship’s landing hatch. “I’m going down; perhaps there are some useful clues around here.”

Landing on an area with extreme gravity was undoubtedly dangerous as the body needed to withstand pressures dozens of times stronger; even an excellent ability user like Xia Fei would not be taking it easy.

“Since Porter has already left, we should leave, too; perhaps we’ll find him if when we go to the next spot,” advised Phantom as he did not want to see Xia Fei exploring.

Xia Fei shook his head as he scooped up his spacesuit, quickly putting it on. “No, I must find out what Old Porter was looking for. Plus, those structures are incredibly weird; aren’t you interested at all?”

Phantom pouted. “It doesn’t matter if I’m interested; the thing is that you are.”

Xia Fei let out a hearty laugh. “Strange things always happen in strange places. How much time can a quick look take? Old Porter left this place in one piece; the worst thing here is probably the gravity. There shouldn’t be anything outside of that.”

Xia Fei’s analysis made sense. Old Porter probably finished his landing on this planet. If he was just searching, he could have done that in the air; it made no sense to stop his ship on the planet. If the old mechanic managed to leave after staying on this planet for a bit, it meant that he did not encounter any trouble, or else he would still be here.

At this moment, Harris left the room. When he saw that Xia Fei intended to land on the planet no matter what, he said with furrowed eyebrows, “Xia Fei, I think that you should wear two spacesuits.”

There were two types of spacesuits for spacewalks: The first one was made of high-strength alloys, which resembled a suit of armor, that could withstand the weird and unpredictable climate in outer space.

The second one was made of a softer material. Although it had a weaker defense, it was much more comfortable and would not feel cumbersome to the wearer.

In these conditions and under such pressures, the high-strength spacesuit might crumble under its own weight, while the softer spacesuit might put all the pressure on Xia Fei, meaning that his body would have to bear the full force of gravity.

Xia Fei felt that Harris made sense. Wearing both meant double protection; if the outer layer was damaged, there was still the other layer left to protect him.

…

The landing hatch slowly opened. It was noticeably slower than before as the hydraulic door was affected by gravity the same way, becoming more sluggish.

The incredible pressure was felt by Xia Fei all over his body. Xia Fei remained still at the landing hatch, allowing himself to fully adjust to the pressure before moving.

After five whole minutes, Xia Fei finally started walking away from the Tomahawk. His footsteps were slow as it felt like he had a mountain on his back; his face was getting flushed because of it, too.

Harris’s voice came through the communicator. As Xia Fei was pretty close to the warship, the communication systems still worked, though it might no longer do so if he went a bit further.

“I’ve checked the status of your body. According to your physiology, you can withstand this for five hours and twenty-six minutes at most; otherwise, there will be irreparable damage.”

The spacesuit sent back plenty of information to let their subordinates monitor their body. As a genetic researcher, Harris could obviously give a good estimate of what Xia Fei’s limits were.

Xia Fei, who was slowly moving his feet, asked in a rough voice, “Are you sure?”

“Remember: You must return after five hours and twenty-six minutes no matter what.”

Xia Fei nodded. “Roger that.”

When he was done talking to Xia Fei, Harris quietly sat on the captain’s seat that Xia Fei usually sat on with a weird smile on his face.

Staring at Xia Fei’s body’s statistics, Harris muttered, “What an incredible physique; my Amethyst sure is incredible.

“No, I must record all this down for future research.” Harris smiled so widely that his eyes turned into slits. In his eyes, everything about Xia Fei was worth researching. Moreover, he felt that the Amethyst he had created was almost equivalent to creating Xia Fei himself, giving him a sense of accomplishment.

However, he did not realize that, although Amethyst was an integral part of the puzzle and Xia Fei would not be who he was without it, Xia Fei’s hard work and special way of doing things were also important. Without any one of them, Xia Fei might still be a normal human, no different from any other person bustling on the streets.

Old Porter’s warship stopped in the middle of the four cubic structures. These four structures were about one thousand meters tall, surrounding Xia Fei like four massive mountain peaks.

Xia Fei first arrived at the place where Porter stopped his ship. In order to ensure that he would not disturb his surroundings, Xia Fei stopped the Tomahawk kilometers away. The gravity was so strong that a speed ability user like Xia Fei took half an hour to arrive from the Tomahawk—something that would have been completely out of imagination in the past. Xia Fei’s speed was nearing 4000m/s, so this distance would be covered in the blink of an eye in normal circumstances.

There was not anything out of the ordinary at where he parked the ship. Xia Fei tried to look for Old Porter’s footprints, but because of the constant pressure, the surface was incredibly hard. Old Porter’s footprints were barely noticeable on the red earth.

From the looks of the footprints, he was probably headed toward the structure on the right. Xia Fei gritted his teeth, then went after Old Porter’s traces as fast as he could.

An hour later, Xia Fei was now directly in front of the cubic structure. Old Porter’s footsteps stopped here, he walked around for a bit before returning to his ship.

Xia Fei was filled with questions. Old Porter came and left; was he only here to walk around?

“Impossible. Totally impossible,” Xia Fei muttered.

Placing his hand, covered by the thick spacesuit, on the wall of the structure, Xia Fei tried to find the entrance. Alas, he could not find anything despite walking around the structure a few times.

It was understandable not to have windows since the gravity here was much higher than normal; an accident was bound to happen if a structure had too many windows.

Then again, what would a few windows do in such a horrible condition? Why not just use an AI computer to simulate a beautiful sunny beach and project it on the walls? Virtual scenery would be better than a red desert no matter what, so a structure without a door was just weird. How did the people go in? Was he supposed to pass through the concrete wall with his mind?

There were indeed some ability users who could phase through walls. The eldest of the Ling brothers, Ling Xiao, whom he had met in the capital ring, was one of them. As his spatial ability allowed him to create space, not even a thick concrete wall could stop him.

On such a huge planet, with these many structures, there were probably over tens of thousands of residents; it would be ridiculous if all of them had spatial abilities.

Xia Fei did not want to leave just like this. There was no trace of Old Porter, nor was there a way to enter these cubic structures. There was not much left of the time limit that Harris advised, yet Xia Fei continued searching with no intentions of going back.

There was a garbled signal from the communications system. Xia Fei knew that this must be Harris warning him to return in order to prevent irreparable damage on his body. Because of the disruptions in the signal, Xia Fei mostly heard static just like an old radio with bad reception.

“We should return; our time is almost up,” Phantom said unsettled.

Xia Fei silently nodded, returning no questions asked.

*Whoosh!*

The Tomahawk returned to the air once again, but not long after lifting off, Xia Fei commanded in a deep voice, “Target any structure; shoot it with a neutron cannon.”

Phantom was shocked. “Xia Fei, what are you trying to do?”

Xia Fei let out a cold smile. “I have a question that I want answers to.”

“What question?”