Star Ocean: Starting from the Abandoned Mining Space Station.

Chapter 316 Invitation

Half an hour passed.

Cheng Xinghai suddenly woke up.

The first time she woke up, she gasped for air, as if she had seen something terrifying in her sleep.

However, she soon calmed down and her breathing became steady again. The soothing that Chen Ming had been consuming his mental energy still had an effect.

"woke up?"

Hearing Chen Ming's concerned inquiry, Cheng Xinghai found her lying on the bed in her bedroom, with Chen Ming sitting next to her.

Her face suddenly turned red, and she subconsciously checked her clothes, which were still neat.

Chen Ming didn't do anything strange when she was unconscious.

Cheng Xinghai breathed a small sigh of relief.

But she glanced at the bed again and found her slippers neatly placed here.

She suddenly had an image in her mind of Chen Ming carrying her to the bedside, helping her take off her slippers, and lifting her feet to lay flat on the bed.

Her face turned quite red again.

Before, he decisively threw Cheng Xinghai on the bed, but Chen Ming put the thrown away shoes away and tilted his head and asked, "What's wrong?"

"nothing."

Cheng Xinghai couldn't take the initiative to say that he thought of some ambiguous scenes.

If you say these words in your own bedroom, the current atmosphere may directly develop in certain directions.

She wasn't ready yet.

Cheng Xinghai covered his head and pushed himself up. "What happened to me just now?"

Chen Ming said two words clearly and concisely: "Dizzy."

"Of course I know I fainted, how did I faint?"

Chen Ming took out the pistol from its holster, turned it around and handed it to Cheng Xinghai.

"You're not afraid of fire either."

Cheng Xinghai looked at the frantic words ectoplasm covered with twisted and frantic patterns at the end of the revolver's handle, but still did not dare to take the pistol.

"this thing……"

"It's what I'm using now to train my psychic powers, but the effect is becoming less and less obvious."

"The effect is not obvious for you?!"

"Correct."

The mad words ectoplasm stone was already created during the last dimension infection. After such a long period of use, Chen Ming has long been completely accustomed to such mental shock, and the effect is indeed getting weaker and weaker.

However, what Chen Ming didn't expect was that after he casually said something that he didn't even feel.

Cheng Xinghai suddenly became a little depressed.

It seemed that his words made Cheng Xinghai feel an insurmountable gap.

Chen Ming immediately comforted him: "Don't be discouraged. I used to start from whispering and work my way up. In the past, just touching the ectoplasm stone I gave you at the beginning would cause severe pain in my brain."

Cheng Xinghai still said a little depressed: "How long ago was that..."

"Two years ago."

"At that time, I was still surviving in the wilderness of Ruimu Planet, and then there was an undiscovered psychic pulse generator from the mechanical race on Ruimu Planet."

"There is a Whispering Ectoplasm Stone inside that continuously releases psychic pulses to the surrounding area. I just took the psychic pulse for about a month."

"At that time, this psychic pulse was driving me crazy. I could only drive the spacecraft into space every day to get some rest."

"I was much more fragile then than you are now."

Chen Ming's comfort had some effect. Cheng Xinghai cheered up a little and asked, "So is the ectoplasmic stone you just showed me the whispering one?"

"That's not the case, it's the one at the back."

"?"

Cheng Xinghai didn't react for a while.

Because the effect brought by the spiritual stone at the back, which Chen Ming called the Word of Madness, was too terrifying.

If Chen Ming had been exposed to the words of madness...

Of course it's actually not that exaggerated.

Chen Ming immediately explained: "The ectoplasm stone I got from the machine clan's equipment is the Whispering ectoplasm stone. Its situation is quite special."

"It grew from an ordinary ectoplasm stone into a resonance ectoplasm stone, and then step by step it became what it is now."

Chen Ming still remembers when he placed the Whispering Ectoplasm Stone in the warehouse of his Iron Mine, and he was also transporting the bodies of several pirates at that time.

It can only be said that the pirate in the coffin was not completely dead when he got the coffin, and he did not die until he reached the spaceship.

Usually, the reason why ectoplasm stones appear is that some people have some extreme emotions in their hearts when they are dying.

These emotions will in turn affect some ordinary stones that exist in the world under the influence of the mental power of these people who are stimulated to the extreme due to their extreme emotions, turning the stones into spiritual stones.

Normally, the resentment in the pirate's heart when he died would inspire a certain stone around him to become a new spiritual stone.

Maybe it was because we were in space at the time and there was no suitable stone nearby, or maybe it was because the ectoplasm stone itself had its own special place.

In short, in the end, the Whispering Ectoplasm Stone that Chen Ming placed in the storage compartment of the spaceship was stimulated and became the Lies Ectoplasm Stone, and it created a unique resonance.

Chen Ming is needed to achieve the goal of resonance.

And the Lies Ectoplasm Stone completely resonated with him after he killed the middleman who had tricked the pirate captain to death.

Later, the Lies Ectoplasm Stone came into contact with the creation infected by the same crazy dimension, and the death of the abnormal heart once again promoted the changes of the Lies Ectoplasm Stone.

Make it what it is now.

Chen Ming explained to Cheng Xinghai the origin of the Mad Words Spiritual Stone in detail.

Finally, he concluded: "As I grow, it also grows, so I am lucky. I have always had such an ectoplasmic stone that allows me to practice my psychic powers."

"Even a stone can grow to this point, and you can definitely continue to grow stronger."

Cheng Xinghai's depressed mood had dissipated when he listened to Chen Ming's story about the past.

She was very interested in Chen Ming's past and listened very carefully.

"I remember you didn't explain it in such detail or so much in the simulation before."

"Because things were different back then."

Chen Ming explained very matter-of-factly: "At that time, you were just a prisoner, and I was just perfunctory, but now, I am telling you things seriously."

When Cheng Xinghai heard this, he got up and threw himself on Chen Ming's back. He put his arms around Chen Ming's neck and said, "I knew you were perfunctory with me before and stared at the computer every day."

She didn't use any force at all, she was just acting coquettishly.

It seemed that Chen Ming's comfort was very effective.

"Okay, okay, it's almost done. I have heard my mother-in-law's footsteps downstairs. If I don't go out..."

When Cheng Xinghai heard this, he quickly released his arm around Chen Ming's neck, jumped off the bed, put on his shoes and hurried outside.

She picked up the pen and continued to record the people she needed to invite to the engagement party.

Time came to noon in a blink of an eye.

Chen Ming officially had a meal with Bai Quan's family.

Of course there will be chatting during the meal.

Chen Ming also roughly understood the progress of the engagement party.

After a morning of hard work, the guests to be invited to the engagement banquet have been roughly decided, and then only some simple additions and deletions will be made.

However, it has not yet been determined which company will host the engagement banquet.

My mother-in-law seemed to have a headache.

Because she went to a wedding company today for an on-site inspection and asked around. On the way back, she had already received calls from dozens of different wedding companies.

It seems that it will take some time to pick out a suitable one.

At that time, the specific location of the wedding banquet will be arranged according to the location of the wedding company.

There is also a choice for the time of the engagement party, which will be in two weeks.

Leave plenty of time to get everything ready.

In addition to these, of course the engagement ring was also brought up at the dinner table.

Chen Ming decisively accepted this task.

But after Bai Quan heard that Chen Ming was going to take on this task, he suddenly looked at Chen Ming and seemed to have something to say.

After lunch, Bai Quan went to the balcony first.

Chen Ming understood, and also went to the balcony, closing the door smoothly.

As an accommodation park for military family members of the legion, the sound insulation effect here is quite good. People in the room cannot hear the conversation between Chen Ming and Bai Quan.

Bai Quan didn't talk much. Just now he brought up the topic of the engagement ring to Chen Ming and said, "You said you were going to prepare the ring. Do you want to use something given by the legion commander?"

"Yes, the ectoplasmic stone has the characteristic of love. It's very suitable, isn't it?"

Bai Quan nodded slightly, but then shook his head.

"I heard some information from my friends at the Psychic Research Institute. The love ectoplasm stone seems to have some negative effects."

Chen Ming admitted: "Yes, after a spiritual link is established between two psychics, whether the relationship breaks down or one of them dies due to an accident or some other reason, it will have a great impact on the other party. "

"The negative effect is the biggest flaw of this spiritual stone."

"I know what you're worried about, but there's no need."

"The special effect of the love ectoplasm stone requires two psykers to actively activate it. As long as it is not activated, there will be no negative effects and it can just be used as an ordinary ectoplasm stone."

"The important thing is its symbolic meaning. What could be more suitable for me and Xinghai than it?"

"And it's because of its negative effects that I'm going to use it on an engagement ring instead of a wedding ring."

For Chen Ming.

He even felt that even if he really wanted to trigger the special effect of the love ectoplasm stone, it wouldn't be too smooth.

If he didn't restrain himself, Cheng Xinghai might be knocked unconscious again by the increase in his mental power.

Even if he really wanted to use it, he would have to start with the Whispering Spiritual Stone and slowly train Cheng Xinghai.

And there's another problem.

Chen Ming himself is a mentally violent entity, so he can use a variety of things with different psychic properties at will without negative effects.

But Cheng Xinghai can't.

Once she uses the love ectoplasm stone, it means that she needs to wear it for a long time, and it will be even more troublesome to use the training effects of other ectoplasm stones later.

And Chen Ming doesn't think love is a good choice for Xinghai.

He has had many opportunities to come into contact with Xinghai, and he knows what Xinghai's psychic fluctuations are like, so he knows that Xinghai's psychic properties are not very compatible with love.

The Love Spirit Stone is only suitable for the engagement party of Chen Ming and Cheng Xinghai, not for Xinghai himself.

Therefore, Chen Ming really used the love ectoplasm stone as an engagement ring.

I won’t actually use the special effects of the Love Ectoplasm Stone. At least not for the time being.

Chen Ming felt that Bai Quan wanted to say something more, but he hesitated, and finally swallowed the words without saying anything.

However, Chen Ming could probably guess what Bai Quan wanted to say, and it must be about the legion commander.

After all, this love ectoplasm stone was given to him by the legion commander.

It's not like the legion commander wants to use this thing to restrict Chen Ming, or use Cheng Xinghai to kill him.

The reason is also very simple.

Chen Ming is a psychic after all, and he is also a researcher with a relatively complex research direction.

Although I have never studied psychic powers systematically, I know a lot about psychic powers.

And I also know people who work at the Psychic Research Institute.

Therefore, Chen Ming is absolutely clear about the nature of the love spirit stone itself.

Even if the legion commander didn't know that Chen Mingqing didn't know the effect of the love spirit stone.

After he gave the gift, Chen Ming could see the unique effect of the ectoplasmic stone without even reaching out to touch it. After understanding the legion commander's intentions and thanking him, he could probably understand that Chen Ming was a knowledgeable person.

not to mention.

Chen Ming has more than one good thing with psychic properties, which many people know.

"Ming" and "Ming" were inlaid with the Crazy Words Spiritual Stone which did not emit any psychic energy fluctuations at all, but had the pattern of the Spiritual Stone. He had never deliberately hidden it.

If you think about it for a moment, you will understand that this is a psychic weapon inlaid with a special resonance ectoplasm stone.

And "Ming" was given to Chen Ming by Bai Quan, not to mention it.

Therefore, an ordinary spiritual stone with many restrictions such as love cannot be compared to what Chen Ming has.

It was purely because of the unique symbolic meaning of the love spirit stone that the legion commander gave it to him.

With the legion commander's methods, it was impossible and unnecessary to expect Chen Ming to use this spiritual stone himself.

If he really wanted Chen Ming's leverage, he would have used some other means.

Of course, judging from the current performance of the legion commander, he has no intention of doing such a thing. He seems to really want to maintain a good and friendly relationship with Chen Ming.

Although Bai Quan didn't say it explicitly, he was definitely worried about these issues.

Chen Ming also made it clear to Bai Quan and said: "Don't worry about these problems, I will take care of all matters related to psychic energy."

Bai Quan's eyes that were originally looking at the distance turned back to Chen Ming, with complex emotions intertwined in his eyes.

"Then...leave it to you."

Two weeks passed in a blink of an eye.

Chen Ming and Cheng Xinghai's engagement party was held as scheduled.

The specific process of an engagement banquet is not complicated and is much simpler than a formal wedding banquet.

But there still have to be various rituals.

Anyway, Chen Ming didn't like it very much, and Cheng Xinghai disliked it even more than he did.

The day before, she had dragged Chen Ming and shouted that it should be over quickly and not make too many bells and whistles.

Then he was pushed back by his mother-in-law.

After all, this is a very important matter, and the two of them still have to cooperate.

Of course it didn't take long.

Compared with the wedding banquet, the engagement banquet is mainly about entertaining guests and announcing the more detailed wedding banquet in the future.

Generally speaking, there is not much process. As the protagonists of the engagement banquet, the two people can just attend it halfway and meet some important guests.

For example, Chen Ming needs to get to know the directors of the Ship Research Institute, the Psionics Research Institute, and the Shining Civilization Research Institute.

Because of the status of the three honorary members above his head.

There are also Baiquan's adoptive father, some old people in the Baiquan faction who are closely related to Baiquan.

And He Gu, who was invited by Chen Ming.

The three directors all maintained a welcoming attitude towards Chen Ming.

Bai Quan's adoptive father and his old boss are also very optimistic about Chen Ming.

When he saw He Gu at the engagement party, Chen Ming suddenly realized a problem.

The Psychic Research Institute is a place for systematic research on psionic powers.

And he has never systematically learned anything related to psychic energy.

This means that even if Chen Ming has passed now, there is not much he can learn.

He seemed a little bit fooled.

But this is his own problem, there is nothing to say.

The other two research institutes do not require a very systematic understanding of psychic energy. Just be more diligent in going to those two research institutes when the time comes.

However, Chen Ming also suddenly discovered the "sinister intentions" of the legion commander.

There are indeed good things in these departments, but they definitely require a lot of time to learn, and it is the kind of learning that is best done by personally participating.

In other words, the legion commander gave Chen Ming the status of these three honorary members, which was equivalent to putting a big piece of fat in the headquarters to lure Chen Ming to stay.

After all, after leaving, although the identity of the honorary member is still there, the environment in which it can be applied is not very good.

This is also something he needs to consider carefully in the future.

After all, he couldn't stay here forever.

While Chen Ming was thinking about it, he suddenly discovered that there seemed to be a lot of people surrounding Baiquan.

Chen Ming listened casually, mainly talking about the incident two weeks ago.

There are positions in many departments that are vacant and need to be filled.

There are many vacancies, and they are all assigned to Baiquan.

Of course there will be a bunch of people surrounding Bai Quan.

Chen Ming didn't care about the others, but he had to pay attention to the special materials management department.

Because energy crystals are considered special-grade materials, the development of energy crystal crab resources must go through the special materials management department.

Before, when Chen Ming was not in the Fourteenth Legion, he had handed over the energy crystal transaction to Baiquan's agent, allowing Baiquan to forcefully get in on this department.

Now that several factions have been affected, a lot of positions are vacant, just enough for Bai Quan to intervene more.

Don’t say anything else.

As long as people from Baiquan can be placed in this department, it will make absolute sense for Chen Ming to make money from the resources of the Crystal Crab.

And it seems that it was because Chen Ming's plan to sell energy crystals, energy crystal crabs, and energy crystal crab cultivation technology was announced by Bai Quan, and many people wanted to talk to Bai Quan about this emerging material.

Although Chen Ming was the original source of goods, because Bai Quan was helping out, everyone basically went to Bai Quan.

It's very good, Chen Ming is also happy to be clean.

After meeting almost everyone he needed to see, he quietly slipped outside the banquet hall to take a breath.

However, he had only been pure for a while when someone came to him.

"Hello, Mr. Chen Ming."

The person who spoke was a gentle-looking man in a suit.

Whose relatives and friends should it be.

Although Chen Ming didn't know him, and logically speaking, there was no need to be too serious in this situation.

But since the man in the suit was like this, Chen Ming still said hello: "Hello, who are you?"

"Please allow me to promise in advance before talking to you that I will leave the legion headquarters after today and will never appear in front of your family members."

Chen Ming's face suddenly darkened. If the man in the suit wasn't going to talk about something dangerous, he obviously wouldn't have said it first.

"go on."

"I'm from the Empire."

This short sentence made Chen Ming's heart suddenly surge.

However, he calmly asked: "I know the ruling party and ruling class of the empire, what do you want to do?"

The man in the suit said in a gentle tone: "I just want to get to know you, because the empire needs people like you."

"You want me to leave the Legion and join the Empire? Is this considered coercion or invitation?"

"Of course it's an invitation. We just want you to know that the foundation that the Fourteenth Legion can build is the existence of the empire, and the empire that the Legion can give you can be the same."

"We are just giving you an additional choice, and there is nothing forced about my conversation with you."

Chen Mingke disagreed with his statement: "It's hard to say."

"It is precisely because you may have such an idea that I will make a guarantee before communicating with you."

"We also know that you have people in the legion that you can't let go of, so we just sent me here and sent you the most basic invitation."

“If you’re interested, please contact this person.”

The man in the suit took out a business card from his pocket and handed it to Chen Ming with both hands.

Chen Ming thought about it and finally took the business card.

The man in the suit bowed slightly to Chen Ming, turned around and left.

It does seem to be fulfilling his promise.

Chen Ming glanced at the business card. There was only a communication code on it.

This is the invitation from the empire.

Chen Ming suddenly had mixed feelings.

Because he has finally grown enough to attract the attention of the empire and is worthy of being invited by the empire.

Belonging to the empire and belonging to the legion, although they are both doing things for the empire, they are two different concepts.

It's no wonder that the former legion commander would rather bleed a lot to resolve the matter immediately, and also find a way to keep him in the legion.

Unknowingly, Chen Ming has grown to such a point.

This can be regarded as one more choice.

If Chen Ming is not satisfied with the legion, he can leave at any time, just use this contact information to contact him.

Although he has no thoughts of leaving yet, after all, the legion commander's attitude is very good, but he still has to leave a way out for himself.

With a way out, there is bargaining capital.

It doesn't mean that he must join the empire. He can definitely use the empire as a springboard for his further advancement.

Even getting along with the legion and getting along with the empire are also different concepts, and the things that need to be considered are different.

If he is close to the Empire, it will be more difficult to leave in the future.

but……

Chen Ming only has prosthetics left in the empire now, so he doesn't need to consider this issue at all.

(End of this chapter)