Chapter 439 - 423: "You Have So Many Treasures!
In the distant Ten Thousand Vaults Star Realm, at the Hub Tower.
Desolate Void, a Six-armed Person, had just smoothly and thoroughly resolved the matter of his subordinate using the Hub Tower’s intelligence network to make some money on the side. Finally finding a moment of leisure, he sat down in a plush chair, poured himself a small glass of wine, and took a satisfied sip.
For beings of their level, satisfying the palate was one of the easiest ways to experience pleasure.
PING.
Suddenly, a red notification popped up in his visual implant module.
’Red?’
He sat up straight. After studying it, his heart filled with disbelief, and he read it over again to be sure!
There was no mistake.
It wasn’t an order, but a notice.
[In accordance with Article 219 of the Cosmic Country’s laws, Annie and Kettel have been lawfully executed.]
’No prior warning, not even a whisper, not even a proper notice—they just went and directly executed two of my most capable subordinates like that?’
Desolate Void, with his six arms, hadn’t looked at the legal code of the Thirty-Seventh Cosmic Country in several hundred years. He immediately activated the search engine implanted in his Brain Domain and pulled up the content of Article 219 of the Cosmic Country’s legal code.
[Article 219: Public officials of an Advanced Civilization Star Realm may not, through any action or method, interfere with the developmental process of lower-level civilizations. Violators will be sentenced to a minimum of 30 days imprisonment, with no upper limit.]
"This..."
Desolate Void understood immediately.
’This is just a pretext, a crime on paper. If the higher-ups want a legitimate reason for someone to die, then even breathing is a crime. Even a silicon-based lifeform that doesn’t breathe would be beheaded for evolving in a way that doesn’t conform to cosmic laws, or for having some undiscoverable genetic defect, its right to exist confiscated.’
"The Unfastened Boat Star Realm..."
"Just what kind of treasure has appeared that would make the Tower King go to such lengths—disregarding the dignity of our own people—to silence my two subordinates?"
Desolate Void was a smart being.
Smart beings don’t waste emotion or energy on matters they shouldn’t ask about or pursue.
He sighed, put away the legal code of the Thirty-Seventh Cosmic Country, and he completely lost the mood for drinking.
Desolate Void and the Tower King were of the same race. The Tower King wouldn’t direct his anger toward him.
’To lose two capable subordinates just like that... Annie was one thing, but Kettel was an unparalleled genius who possessed four types of Holy Hall Origin. He was a resource I was reserving for my push to a higher status, and now he’s just... gone. I need to find a way to make up for this loss, and fast. Otherwise, my status and influence in the Hub Tower will be severely affected.’
...
...
...
「Unfastened Boat Star Realm.」
In the Tower King’s palm, the Thirty-Three-Layered Small Tower revolved in a regular pattern, each layer spinning at a different speed.
At this moment, he was wholeheartedly playing the patient hunter, waiting for his prey. The instant a creature was punished by the Radiance within the region it covered, he would be the first to sense it. He could then use another treasure to teleport there instantly and find the true Divine Rune!
This was the simplest, most convenient, and most effective method for finding a needle in the Star Sea.
He wasn’t worried about the treasure hunter hiding the prize and fleeing.
What he worried about was other Nirvana Powerhouses turning their attention this way.
But for now, the early bird gets the worm. With the Ten Thousand Vault Radiance, the Tower King had already established an unbeatable position in the fastest way possible. All records had been destroyed, so even if others wanted to enter the game later, they wouldn’t be able to compete with him. Furthermore, the Tower King had tampered with the bounty mission in more ways than one. The treasure offered as a reward was a dangerous artifact capable of breaking through space—a real, named item that truly existed!
This gave him options for both advancing and retreating.
Now, time would yield its results.
’I hope those lowly creatures have a bit of luck and find the target soon, so this whole affair can end sooner.’
"Hm?"
The Tower King’s eyes snapped open.
He sensed a powerful potential energy gathering somewhere, as if it could rip through the Star Sea in the very next moment!
’An enemy attack?’
"Hahaha."
The Tower King’s face twitched as he laughed.
’The Star Sea is full of arrogant individuals. A few of them might even think they’re the favored children of the heavens, but sadly, in the face of absolute resources and power, any provocation is as futile as a mantis trying to stop a chariot—utterly overestimating their own strength.’
The Tower King rose from his cross-legged position.
The small tower in his hand grew even more dazzling. Each of its thirty-three layers spun rapidly. Viewed from above, it resembled a thirty-three-layered astrolabe, with different luminous celestial bodies rotating at varying speeds.
BOOM!
A powerful force tore through space, arriving in an instant with the force of 24% the speed of light. An eternal radiance swirled around the Tower King as he met the high-speed "Nirvana" in a head-on, ultimate collision.
The "Nirvana’s" power had been accumulating for a long time, like a real pulsar.
One of the small tower’s layers activated a new command.
Defense.
It gathered the power of a galaxy to form a super-defense, but it was just a fraction too slow. Under the force of the pulsar’s cataclysmic impact, the Tower King’s three-meter-tall body wavered, and he stumbled back a hasty half-step.
"And which friend might you be?!"
The shockwave dissipated in ripples. The cross-shaped ship vanished from the Star Sea, and in its place, a Dark Star Person appeared in the Endless Star Sea, looking distinguished and with a smile in his eyes.
"Rui Liang of the Dark Star Race. I’ve come to ask for your guidance."
"Attacking without cause... do you intend to make an enemy of me?"
The Tower King’s voice boomed through the cosmos.
Though he spoke, the power in his palm never slackened. After taking the hit, he was already beginning to channel a Nirvana-rank skill.
[Cage]!
’It doesn’t matter if he wants to be my enemy or not. All who provoke me shall be imprisoned and exiled to the realm of death!’
Within the Star Domain, order itself seemed to fail. Scattered asteroids and debris from previous battles, under the effect of the Nirvana-rank skill [Cage], transformed into solid, eternal chains that coiled layer by layer toward Shi Ming, who was disguised as Rui Liang.
Shi Ming’s body flickered.
A cross-shaped radiance suddenly appeared, slashing toward the overlapping chains.
Pathos!
Having seized Rui Liang’s fate, he had also seized his skills. In his Rui Liang form via the Ten Thousand Forms Sanctuary, Shi Ming could use every skill Rui Liang excelled at, including his signature skill, [Pathos].
From a certain perspective, the Ten Thousand Forms Sanctuary truly was a god-like skill—
it cleverly circumvented the "exclusivity" flaw of Nirvana skills!
Of course, the Ten Thousand Forms Kun itself was certainly not capable of this on its own. A skill’s power depended more on who was using it. An ordinary D-rank skill, when used by a Nirvana-rank powerhouse, came with a bonus of several thousand points of raw Attack Power, enough to easily kill an S-rank beast.
SHIING!
Pathos and Cage met head-on.
Layer after layer of metal chains snapped into pieces, and under the effects of Pathos, they could not reform. But an endless supply of chains served as replacements, surging forward one after another.
During the stalemate, Shi Ming noticed that the three-meter-tall figure had grown six arms. With two of them, he pulled two more treasures from his chest. One was a heart-shaped object suffused with starlight, and the other was a two-meter-long spear shrouded in a watery mist.
His eyelid twitched.
[Tsk tsk! As expected of a powerhouse with deep resources. In comparison, you’re just ridiculously poor!]
[Supreme Treasure: Heart of the Star Spirit!]
[Anomalous Item: Heavy Water King’s Spear!]
As the words flashed before Shi Ming’s eyes, the Lamp of Wishes inside his Storage Bracelet seemed to light up automatically, as if it couldn’t wait. Because the Lamp of Wishes possessed a spirit, Shi Ming didn’t keep it in his personal warehouse but instead carried it in his Storage Bracelet.