Chapter Seventy-Five: Love at First Sight

Alone, Jinara naturally understood the difficulty of standing on one’s own, so she secretly reached out to her subordinates to help her seize the ship.

Jinara dared to carry out this plan precisely because they possessed the blessing granted by their master—the Creator’s Breath known as Dizin.

This strange substance could strengthen the connection between the Tadarins and the warped void, and naturally, it could also disrupt the link between the Starborn and the psychic realm. Jinara carried an entire vial of Dizin with her.

That entire vial had been painstakingly saved over hundreds of years, but she was willing to pay any price to complete this mission.

Feeling the Creator’s Breath spreading throughout the ship, a sincere smile blossomed on Jinara’s face. To perfectly cover every corner of the vessel, she had spent this time communicating with those lowly phase technicians, which deeply pained the strength-worshipping Jinara. Finally, it was all about to end.

A faint reddish-purple smoke permeated the mothership. The central intelligence core did not detect the presence of Dizin. This was the first time the Starborn Empire had encountered Dizin; such a creation that entwined reality and illusion required special sensors to perceive. This was also why the Tadarins dared to launch a surprise attack.

Over the years, the Tadarins had been hiding and evading throughout the star sector, secretly developing in the Dark Star Region according to a divine oracle. However, the Dark Star Region was inhospitable to life—even for those favored by the Dark God, like the Tadarins. To enhance their abilities, the Dark God tore the fabric of reality, allowing the power of the warped void to seep in directly—this was the origin of Dizin.

In a parallel world, to conceal Dizin as a trump card, the Dark God refrained from bestowing it upon the Tadarins, which led to the Starborn Empire’s total ignorance of Dizin.

In fact, the Starborn Empire had two chances to uncover the secret of Dizin. The first was during the Calati civilization, where the Starborn who were successfully ambushed had been drugged by Dizin. But after successful testing, the Tadarins quietly left Calati, and subsequent arbitration events on Calati destroyed countless clues beneath the colossal statue.

The second opportunity was at the resting place of the Fang King. Before his death, some Dizin remained in the deep-sea palace, but it was absorbed by the Brood Mother, becoming another henchman of the Dark God.

Now, Dizin appeared once again before the Starborn Empire, delivering a devastating blow. Several reconnaissance fleets sent to the Dark Star Region vanished without a trace. Due to the peculiar nature of the Dark Star Region, the Starborn leadership did not know what had happened to these fleets and were unaware that the fleets had lost contact at all.

At present, this exploration ship had fallen into Jinara’s hands. After drugging all the crew, Jinara immediately teleported her subordinates to take control of the ship. The fleet’s artificial intelligence was forcibly shut down, and the crew were locked in stasis chambers. As for the ship itself, Jinara clumsily piloted it back to Slain for Tadarins to retrofit.

Having successfully completed her mission, Jinara earned Marash’s favor. Not only was she granted more Dizin to replenish her previous losses, but all the crew members were handed over to her to deal with as she wished.

However, these crew members were soon taken away by Aranak, the third-ranked individual in the Ascension Chain and Jinara’s superior. As the fourth-ranked Ascendant, Jinara could not refuse Aranak’s request and had to hand over these useless remnants.

Aranak did not kill them immediately but imprisoned them all in his secret stasis prison. Occasionally, he would visit alone, claiming to punish the captives, thus earning a bloody and brutal reputation.

...

After passing the psychological evaluation by S.H.I.E.L.D., Hilar became an off-duty agent of the organization. Considering the sensitive nature of his work, even though Hilar had signed a confidentiality agreement, the suspicious director remained uneasy. Thus, poor Hilar was not only a diligent off-duty agent but also under 24-hour surveillance to prevent him from leaking any unfavorable information.

Fortunately, Hilar was unaware of this constant monitoring. He simply believed that after signing the agreement, even if he became a reserve agent rather than a full operative—a role not in his career plan—he might as well enjoy it. After all, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s pay was quite good, at least better than his previous job as a small-town police officer.

That day, Hilar’s task was to go to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s New York headquarters to “receive” the heroes returning from Antarctica—his euphemistic way of putting it. Accompanying him were eleven others, all responsible for the “reception.”

Since Quinjet fighters could not fly directly from Antarctica to New York, the Avengers easily transferred to commercial planes thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s numerous bases worldwide. Stark had originally planned to take his private jet, but due to flight route constraints, there was no time to wait.

As they disembarked, Hilar’s gaze was immediately drawn to a woman. He never imagined love could strike so unexpectedly; perhaps true love at first sight did exist, as she haunted his thoughts. Staring blankly at the Avengers passing by, Tony glanced at the dazed young man.

“Hey, buddy, that’s the famous Black Widow. Spellbound, huh?” a colleague chuckled, nudging Hilar playfully.

“Uh, no, no,” Hilar blushed but did not correct the misunderstanding. While most would be captivated by Black Widow’s presence, his dream woman was another ethereal figure.

Although previously unfamiliar with the concept of “immortals” in Eastern culture, the moment he saw her, he understood. She was neither divine nor demonic but perhaps truly worthy of being called a celestial beauty.

He never thought he would one day fall for a woman imbued with Eastern charm. After all, his previous dreams were like those of everyone else—full of wild waves. But love never follows logic, Hilar thought. Now that he finally had a goal, he must strive to achieve it.

Amid his colleagues’ astonished looks, Hilar gathered all his focus to tidy up the clutter on the plane, leaving those around him dumbfounded.

Meanwhile, in a S.H.I.E.L.D. meeting room, Tony was asking Fury for personnel: “That guy, Hilar, right? Get him over here.”