Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

When he saw that Brother Shi was heading toward the core section of the Space Station.

Chen Ming felt a flicker of excitement.

As expected, the probe he made during the day had been the right move.

Finding a Zuo Jing operative hidden among ordinary people, and then using him to dig up more clues about Zuo Jing—that possibility was now tied to this man.

Brother Shi quickly passed through the area where the isolation membrane was, and entered the interior of the Space Station.

Chen Ming immediately controlled a portion of the metallic liquid under Brother Shi’s soles, letting it separate and seep down beneath the floor.

His Spiritual Energy could remotely control the metallic liquid, and he could even remotely increase its volume; filling the entire Space Station’s interior with it wouldn’t be an issue.

But he wasn’t going to add too much right now.

Because whenever he used his Spiritual Energy—specifically, when he was manufacturing metallic liquid—there would still be a trace amount of Spiritual Energy Fluctuation released.

Even though those Spiritual Energy Fluctuations wouldn’t linger, if there were any Psychic nearby, or any device that monitored Spiritual Energy Fluctuations, there was still a chance he’d be detected.

Since Zuo Jing had laid down Silent Alloy on the Space Station, there was no way this place didn’t have anything related to Spiritual Energy.

Doing Spiritual Energy–related experiments without a Psychic nearby to oversee things would be a surefire way to get yourself killed.

Chen Ming knew Zuo Jing had a taste for courting death, but they shouldn’t be reckless enough to skip a safety net when handling something this big.

So there absolutely had to be at least one Psychic originally stationed on this Space Station, very likely sitting in the very core of the Station all this time.

As for devices that monitored Spiritual Energy Fluctuations, he couldn’t be certain, but their presence was highly probable too.

So even in this outer region where he currently was—an area he could fully control with his own hands—he still didn’t dare manipulate the metallic liquid too aggressively.

Because he likewise couldn’t guarantee there were no Psychics lurking in the outer layers of the Station.

This eco-observation Space Station, which had close ties to Zuo Jing, had brought in a department minister from the government; it was obvious they were going to make a major move in the near future.

Under those circumstances, bringing in a Psychic to ensure everything went smoothly would be the most normal arrangement in the world.

Maybe he was overthinking it, but Chen Ming was used to that.

Unless he was truly forced into a situation that demanded an immediate reaction, he would always go with the stable approach.

With the Psychics’ exact positions on the Space Station unknown, rashly expanding the coverage area of the metallic liquid was just asking for trouble.

So even now, in this slightly more inward layer of the Station, Chen Ming was extremely cautious when using the metallic liquid. He deliberately limited the amount, keeping it within a range where he could completely suppress any Spiritual Energy Fluctuations.

Of course, if he could locate some critical site on the Space Station—like the database, or the security system hub.

Then he could directly use that small amount of metallic liquid to seize control of the Station’s internal permissions on both the physical and technical levels.

As long as he could control the entire Space Station, he’d have many ways to infiltrate the Station’s interior and obtain information on Zuo Jing without exposing his own Spiritual Energy, and he wouldn’t have to tiptoe around like he was now.

With that in mind, after guiding the metallic liquid through Brother Shi as he passed the outer isolation membrane, Chen Ming continued using it to probe deeper inside.

However, very soon.

Chen Ming discovered that his metallic liquid could still only move within a certain bounded area.

Because on the path from this area toward the deeper interior of the Space Station, there was yet another Silent Alloy barrier.

Even the Station’s interior had been divided into more sections by these Silent Alloys and modified structures.

This left Chen Ming both uncomfortable and puzzled.

Uncomfortable because, if he wanted to go further in, he’d have to break through even more protective membranes.

And puzzled because, it was perfectly reasonable for Zuo Jing to isolate the exterior, but what was the point of isolating the interior layers from each other?

Silent Alloy, as a Spiritual Energy–related material, was far from cheap; using it to make those metal membranes with internal sensing circuits was even more extravagant. To use such a massive amount across the entire Space Station...

Chen Ming suddenly had a bad feeling.

Could it be that this Space Station was doing some dangerous research involving Spiritual Energy inside, and that was why they’d set up all these isolation layers?

Fortunately, for now he hadn’t sensed any danger. Even if there really was some hazardous research going on inside, he would still have time to stop it... or run.

It was just that, for the moment, Brother Shi had only gone one layer further inside.

And based on the size of this layer and the outermost layer, compared against the overall scale of the Space Station.

Chen Ming estimated that the whole Station might be divided into four or five rings. If all these different sections were isolated from each other with Silent Alloy, then going deeper really would be quite troublesome.

At least for now, he had successfully used the metallic liquid to breach the outer isolation membrane and surveillance, and get into the interior of the Space Station.

In fact, it seemed he could have used other people as carriers to hide the metallic liquid as well.

But before this, Chen Ming hadn’t been sure which people had access to the Station’s interior.

The ones he had confirmed either, like that deputy supervisor who had come to brief Uncle Mao earlier, were temporarily out of his reach—disappearing into the Station’s outer zone and never seen again.

Or, like Ye Lirong, were under the eyes of countless people, making it hard for him to do anything to them.

So being able to find such a suitable target right at his side counted as him getting lucky.