Four days later, at the spaceport exclusive to the royal family of the Blood Candle Kingdom.
As a small kingdom on the outskirts of the Alliance, Blood Candle’s imperial spaceport was nothing to write home about. It was even much cruder than Earth’s Denver Interstellar Spaceport, but the whole piece of Magnared Alloy on the ground drew Xia Fei’s interest. This light alloy was excellent for building warships, so he had no idea why the impoverished Blood Candle Kingdom was using such expensive light metal as construction materials for its spaceport.
“Was your journey smooth?” asked Constantine as he examined the Cruor frigate Xia Fei had flown over on. This hybrid warship was designed like a leech, and its inconspicuous nature, suffused with lethal intent, made his eyes light up.
Xia Fei shrugged. “Asteroid belts and electromagnetic storms are the natural barriers of the Blood Candle Kingdom. If not for your star map, I would need to take a big detour to get here. On this point, I must say that your kingdom is in a very secured location.”
“My royal father’s kingdom,” Constantine softly corrected.
Smiling, Xia Fei casually said, “It’s his now, but who knows what the future will hold?”
“Let’s go. I’ll take you to look around the city. Tonight, my royal father will hold a banquet to welcome you. Really, how did you manage to get a Thanatos carrier? When the border post reported that a capital ship entered our territory, father was scared out of his wits, thinking that some powerful enemy had invaded.”
Xia Fei smiled. “I came to show support for you, so I might as well put on an impressive show. After all, it benefits me to have you on the throne. The two of us have a mutually beneficial relationship.”
Constantine knew that Xia Fei did not easily trust in others, and he was far from reaching the level of one of Xia Fei’s close confidantes. Xia Fei was willing to help him only because he stood to gain from the transaction.
Outside the spaceport was a soldier driving a plain Swallow 7 hovercar. This sort of civilian hovercar looked completely normal. Let alone luxurious, it was almost excessively simple, not at all matching Constantine’s status as a prince.
However, Xia Fei quickly grew indifferent. Constantine had always been inconspicuous. On their first meeting, he looked like he had come from the slums. Now that he was back in his country, his clothes remained simple and plain, and his servants did not put on any airs. It was easy to see that he was very close with them.
The soldier handed the car keys to Constantine. Xia Fei looked closely and saw that all the soldiers in the royal spaceport really were disabled in some way. If they were not missing an arm, they were lacking an ear, but all of them had tough bodies and high cultivation.
“Stop staring. I already told you; Blood Candle is an accursed land. Anyone with an ability is disabled in some way, and anyone without a disability is an ordinary person.”
Xia Fei nodded and entered the little Swallow hovercar. Constantine had no chauffeur, and after starting the engine, he began driving the car down the road leading to the royal city.
There was naught but barren land on both sides of the road, with not even a blade of grass, and when the winds stirred, yellow sands would blot out the sky. Occasionally, he would spot some poor soul in shabby clothes on the roadside. Destitute and barren—this was Xia Fei’s first impression of Blood Candle Kingdom.
“Does this kingdom have a lot of wastelands?”
“How do I say it? If we had to rely completely on agriculture for food, half of Blood Candle would die from starvation. Fortunately, we produce a lot of Magnared Alloy; it’s that metal you saw which serves as the spaceport’s floor. Every year, the Alliance will trade large quantities of food and domestic goods for this alloy, allowing the kingdom to survive,” Constantine said.
Xia Fei said, “Magnared Alloy is an excellent material for building the critical parts of warp engines, and it doesn’t go for cheap in the Alliance. How can your Blood Candle still be poor despite having so much of this valuable metal?”
Constantine explained, “Because this is the Accursed Land. All of us are descendants of criminals, and their blood flows in us. The previous presidents of the Alliance have never trusted the people of Blood Candle Kingdom, so they’ve always limited their exports to us. We trade large deposits of alloy every year, but the price is always kept very low.”
“What about smuggling? Smuggling can get you a lot for a little. Why haven’t you tried to deal with smugglers?”
Constantine bitterly smiled. “The Death Tri-region has its special products, but the navigation routes have never been open. Those smugglers can either go straight to the closer three regions or take a long and perilous detour to Blood Candle Kingdom. Naturally, they would rather go to Black Abyss or Evil Gulfstream for their goods rather than risk a trip to this kingdom.”
Xia Fei nodded. Terminus was already very remote, and Blood Candle was at the edge of it. Without a navigation map, one would need to spend forty to fifty days to get to Blood Candle. Thus, transportation was truly a very serious problem, so the kingdom could only rely on the official trade fleets sent by the Alliance.
A smile formed on Xia Fei’s lips as he looked at the wasteland, an idea forming.
“The development of Terminus is in dire need of high-grade metal. We can make a trade, trading Blood Candle’s Magnared Alloy for food and domestic goods.”
“That’s a good idea, but Magnared Alloy is restricted trade goods of the Alliance. Aren’t you worried that someone will report you if you transport it to the Alliance?”
Xia Fei laughed. “Who said that I’ll be transporting it to the Alliance? Currently, Terminus’s metal supply primarily comes from large-scale mining and smelting barges. Our own metal processing factories are still in the middle of construction, and there’s still a gap between our metal production and metal consumption. Magnared Alloy is both light and tough. While using it for construction is somewhat extravagant, it’s not impossible. In any case, you have so much of it that you use it for floorboards, me using it to build houses isn’t too overboard.”
Constantine firmly nodded. “That’s excellent. It’s a pity that Blood Candle Kingdom lacks the sort of powerful backing you have, or else this part of space will be in a much better state. You need to discuss this with my royal father tonight.”
Xia Fei shook his head. “Not me, you.”
“Me?”
“Right. Now is a crucial moment for you to accumulate capital. By pulling off this deal, you’ll earn some of your royal father’s respect.”
Constantine became enlightened. Xia Fei was doing him a favor right now. If he succeeded with this deal, it would become an important chip in his contention for the throne of the Blood Candle Kingdom.
Phantom guessed Xia Fei’s intentions and said, “Using valuable Magnared Alloy to build houses? Who are you trying to fool? Once you have the alloy, you’ll definitely store it first and eventually use it to build warships. If you have enough, you might even make a Titan from it.”
Xia Fei silently smiled. A Titan was truly one of Xia Fei’s obsessions. He knew that this warship was one of the supreme powers of the universe, with even Law Adepts fearing it, and though he had the blueprints, he had no way of building one. This could be considered a severe mental blow to Xia Fei.
Xia Fei had given Constantine a big gift upon arrival, leaving the latter in a good mood. As the car drove to Blood Candle City, the guard respectfully bowed to Constantine and then let him in.
“Even the walls are made of Magnared Alloy? Blood Candle’s alloy production must have reached a shocking level.” Xia Fei praised.
Constantine sighed. “There’s nothing to be done. The Blood Candle Kingdom has a total of three planets fit for human habitation, and our greatest resource is Magnared Ore. Thus, we just mine the ores and process them into alloy. It’s not just the walls. Look, even many civilian homes are made of Magnared Alloy.”
Xia Fei looked outside the car window, and sure enough, many of the stores, from the signs and tables to chairs, were all made of Magnared Alloy. In the Alliance, this would have undoubtedly been called ostentatious, but in the Blood Candle Kingdom, it was a sign of poverty. Only the wealthy could afford to have buildings made of ordinary bricks.
While Blood Candle City was large, there were many areas in despair; beggars, drunkards, and prostitutes could be everywhere. As an example of the barbarity of this place, two men on the street got into a fight, one of them pulling out a knife and stabbing it into his opponent’s chest, instantly causing blood to spill out, but a soldier on the side of the road simply gave this a few glances before ignoring it.
“In Blood Candle, personal battles are legal. Even if you kill someone, you won’t have to sit in a cell. On the contrary, the weaker side will be mocked by the people,” Constantine explained. “Being weak in this kingdom is a very shameful thing. After all, our people have always been a tough sort, and ability users appear far more frequently here than in the Alliance. Look at those beggars on the streets. Some of them are warriors who got into heavy drinking and ended up in the streets.”
Xia Fei gave a slight nod. “I now somewhat understand why no one tries to fight over this piece of space. Even if they take Blood Candle, they have no way of managing so many ability users, let alone these warriors who are accustomed to fighting and slaughter.
“Now that I think of it, since Blood Candle has such a strong army, why hasn’t it conquered any other region of space?”
Constantine pointed at the western side of the royal city and replied, “Six hundred kilometers to the west is the symbol of the Blood Candle Kingdom, the Accursed Tower. This place is called the Accursed Land because of that tower.
“Blood Candle has the highest percentage of warriors in the entire Alliance because of that tower, but it’s also because of that tower that ninety percent of us are disabled. Once we leave this part of space, leave the range of the Accursed Tower, the warriors of Blood Candle will become no different from ordinary people, so we are fated to remain here.”
Xia Fei found this all very surprising. A single tower could decide a human’s special ability and their body’s disability, and this ability would disappear if they got too far from it? This was simply too unbelievable!
“Why is it like this? What’s so special about the Accursed Tower?”
Constantine explained, “The abilities of the Blood Candle people don’t come from cultivating the Starlight Mantra, nor is it because they take a gene optimization fluid; instead, it’s through a trade with the Accursed Tower.
“Whenever a person of Blood Candle is born, they will be sent to the Accursed Tower. If they come out with a disability, it means the curse has taken effect, and a part of their body has been exchanged for a powerful ability. In the barbaric Blood Candle Kingdom, a person without martial arts strength will find it very difficult to survive, so children will be sent to the tower when they are very young in the hopes that they can trade for an ability to protect themselves.
“Once they get an ability, particularly a combat type, the entire family will celebrate, for the family will have another warrior. Most of those few children who don’t get an ability will end up being abandoned by their parents and become orphans who ultimately die tragic deaths. This is the fate of the Blood Candle people,” Constantine sorrowfully said.
Xia Fei nodded. The people of Blood Candle had truly paid a hefty price to survive in this barren land. This was perhaps the reason the Blood Candle Kingdom was such a special existence in the Alliance, looked down on, and spurned by the common folks. They even called this place the Accursed Land.
“What a magical tower. If there’s a chance, I truly want to look at this Accursed Tower,” Xia Fei muttered as he looked west.
“It’s very simple. See Royal Father tonight first, then I’ll take you there tomorrow,” Constantine casually said. “If you’re not worried about being cursed, that is.”
