Black Star Cup Competition Field Thirteen was a vast ring-shaped valley, like a naturally occurring colosseum, with rugged rocks and complex topography.
The auditorium was suspended in midair, and countless spectators looked down from the floating seats onto the battlefield. The various media groups were also broadcasting the situation in real time.
Pew!
Bang!
Suddenly, two fireballs fell from the sky, hitting the sides of the valley. Those were the airborne drop pods, and the friction between the atmosphere and its surface released such a high temperature that it caused the very air around it to warp.
Accompanied by the decompression of the sealed chambers, the doors of the two single person airborne pods opened, and two players walked out. One of them was Frenzied Sword, and the other was Hao Tian.
“All the best!”
The moment both of them appeared, the crowd went wild.
Frenzied Sword ignored the crazed spectators, unfolded a silvery white mechanical trident, and stared at Hao Tian. “I didn’t expect us to meet so soon.”
“It’s a random draw. Anything can happen.”
Hao Tian was wearing the special pugilist combat uniform that was produced by the army, warming up his hands and feet.
After more than a month of fierce battles, the Black Star Cup qualifiers had finally come to an end. Just like raising poisonous insects, more than ninety percent of the participants had been eliminated, and only the remaining elites entered the main race. However, Frenzied Sword and Hao Tian had met in the single player event of the Black Star Cup, becoming opponents.
Hao Tian was the pillar of the veteran professional players in the Long Sky club, but Frenzied Sword was the spokesperson for the up-and-coming Rivervale. As professional players, they both had a large number of fans, so today’s match was highly anticipated.
Not only did the players pay attention to the competition between players, but even the NPCs were interested. The play styles of the players were often more radical and insane, making their fights enjoyable, which attracted a large number of NPC fans.
Pros such as Frenzied Sword and Hao Tian stood out among the tens of millions of players in the army, gaining a large number of NPC supporters. They were even given nicknames by the NPCs. Hao Tian had the title of ‘Boxing Master’, whereas Frenzied Sword had the title of ‘Machinery Dancer’… It had to be said that their nicknames truly fitted their fighting styles.
Both of them were old friends, so they skipped the trash talk, going directly to the section of physical attacks.
Dang! Dang! Dang!
One was a Pugilist, the other a Mechanical Pugilist. The two figures quickly collided with each other, creating loud impact sounds and sparks.
Their shock waves from their fight created trenches on the ground, throwing up stone and dust high into the sky.
After four versions, both of their micro-manipulation skills had only become more sophisticated. With their current Grade B combat strength, they were already considered extremely destructive humanoid monsters in the eyes of ordinary people.
Bang!
The Mechanical Pugilist had numerous skills, so the offensive of Frenzied Sword was endless. His trident pierced the sky, creating phantoms, bringing up dazzling arcs to surround all the vital points of Hao Tian.
Hao Tian was on the backfoot as he continuously dodged, but he suddenly saw a chance, stopping and raising his hands to accurately grasp the two side blades of the trident.
The phantoms in the sky disappeared, and the edge of the trident was only twenty centimeters away from his face, but it would not budge any further.
Kacha kacha!
Both their arm muscles swelled as they entered a wrestling mode. The ground under their feet cracked, with lines snaking out from below them.
“Serpent Tongue’s Cannon!” Frenzied Sword twisted his hands fiercely.
From within the center of the main blade on the trident, a dazzling energy ball suddenly emerged. It shot out a plasma arc cannon, but Hao Tian tilted his head to avoid it.
This beam of light shot diagonally upward, flashing past and penetrating a rocky mountain. It left behind a blazing red line that was completely melted through, and a layer of viscous magma seeped out.
Taking advantage of Frenzied Sword’s sneak attack, Hao Tian raised his elbow, hitting the spear shaft and deflecting it to the side. He then unleashed a skill. Light accumulated under his feet as he slammed into Frenzied Sword’s chest with a thunderous force, pushing him into the ground.
“War Trample!”
Boom!
The moment Frenzied Sword’s back touched the ground, a shock wave radiated from him. The ground sank by dozens of centimeters, forming a semi-circular pit around him. All the stones around him were crushed into powder by the heavy pressure.
The remnant shock waves swept out along the ground, and the nearby mountain of rocks collapsed. A dust storm gathered, sweeping to the very corners of the battlefield, causing a ring of sand to billow out at the edges.
As his HP and armor’s durability plummeted, Frenzied Sword straightened his waist, and the back of his mechanical suit transformed into a drill bit, digging into the ground to get rid of Hao Tian’s smelly feet.
His figure broke out from the ground in the distance, the weapon in his hand replaced with a huge war axe. With a slash in the air, the force field generator attached to the edge of the axe produced an arc, radiating outward.
Plop…
With his Pugilist aura covering his arms, Hao Tian raised his hand to intercept the arc directly.
The deflected shocked wave flew up, hitting the bottom of a floating auditorium with a loud bang. Amid the excitement of the spectators, an ion shield in a honeycomb structure appeared to block the attack.
And among the excited spectators, there were two special envoys from the Federation of Light that were sitting in the front-row VIP seats. They were whispering to each other while recording the scene of Hao Tian fighting Frenzied Sword.
“The strength of the Immortals has increased yet again. Compared to their last disappearance, the increment is quite obvious. Excluding those Immortals in the budding stage, the earliest batch already have a stable Grade B combat capability.”
“The Immortals have already undergone three periods of disturbance, and the duration is getting longer. Their way of increasing their strength is different to regular training, seemingly dependent on the length of time they disappear. By estimation, if they disappear once more, they might actually step into the Calamity Grade.”
“This is really a terrible group of creatures…”
Thinking that there might be tens of millions of such immortal Calamity Grade lunatics within the universe in the future, the two special agents could not help but shudder.
Just thinking about it, it really could be considered a scourge.
With the increase in their strength, the players were also more valued by the advanced civilizations, and they gradually started to research the rules binding the players.
The three Universal Civilizations had also thought of recruiting the Immortals to act as suicide squads in the past, but at that time, the players were pretty weak. Thus, they did not take them seriously. Furthermore, their characteristics that made them disappear from time to time and their uncertain growth limit caused the three Universal Civilizations to hesitate.
But now, the growth cycle of the players had been proven, and the advanced civilizations had to consider the possibility of the Immortals entering the Calamity Grade realm. As such, they were willing to extend an olive branch to them, giving them better treatment.
Right now, the Black Star Army was the largest ‘shareholder’, sitting on tens of millions of Immortals, naturally inciting fear in many of the major organizations.
In the past, they mainly feared Black Star himself, but now, there were even more reasons for them to feel fear.
To them, the army was holding onto a lot of high-quality stock. If the Immortals could reach the Calamity Grade realm, the high-level combatants within the Black Star Army would instantly overwhelm even the three Universal Civilizations.
The unique attraction of the Black Star Army to the Immortals also surprised the advanced civilizations.
If it was not for the fact that Han Xiao did not have a habit of disappearing for extended periods, they would have simply assumed Han Xiao to be a part of the Immortals.
…
At this time, Han Xiao was far away back in his Black Star Palace, not paying attention to the competition, but rather watching the public trial of the dynasty.
The video showed the surface of a barren planet, where Traveler and another Beyond Grade A who was captured were bound and made to kneel on the execution platform, in a near-death state.
The two were in an extremely poor condition. Because of Clotti’s dark energy circulating within their bodies, their regenerated cells were constantly being destroyed, keeping them in a severely injured state. The two had basically lost all their combat capabilities and were unable to break free.
Beside them, a remote projection of a dynasty officer stood in front of the camera, reading the decree out loud.
The content of the decree was the crimes of the two, such as crimes against public order, war crimes, and mass killings. All sorts of crimes were smashed onto their heads, making them seem as though they were heinous criminals that were wasting the very air in the universe.
What Han Xiao was concerned about were the charges the dynasty issued against Traveler, and as expected, the dynasty then mentioned what he wanted to hear.
“… Traveler has always operated as a neutral mercenary, but it has been verified that his true identity is that of the Beyond Grade A descendant that was secretly cultivated by the Modo Civilization. He tried to stir up disputes between the dynasty, the federation and the church, disrupting the order of the explored universe. At present, it is unknown if anyone part of the Modo Civilization orchestrated this matter, and the dynasty will retain an attitude to pursue accountability.”
Hearing this, Han Xiao’s mouth twitched.
“Humph, retaining an attitude to pursue accountability, how like the usual style of the three gangsters. It seems like the dynasty has already talked to Sorokin…”
He hypothesized that the Modo Civilization, which was originally lying back with popcorn to watch the show, would now have a stunned expression, as though struck silly by a pot that fell from the sky out of nowhere.
As for Traveler’s true host civilization, the Star Arc Civilization, they would probably feel surprised and happy.
However, Han Xiao did not intend to keep Star Arc out of the matter like this. He summoned Phillip.
“Conceal your tracks. Anonymously send out a piece of information to the upper echelons of the Modo Civilization.”
“What should I send, hum?”
“Reveal that the Star Arc Civilization is the real backer of Traveler.”
Han Xiao evilly snickered.
In this manner, the bewildered Modo Civilization would think that their being made a scapegoat was the act of the Star Arc Civilization or that Traveler was being a rabid dog, going around biting people out of desperation.
As for whether or not the Modo Civilization believed in this, he did not care. Since he had provided a clue, the Modo Civilization would definitely find a way to verify it. With the Star Arc Civilization being the guilty party, regardless of whether the clue was checked, both sides would develop some grievances.
This would not only weaken the relationship between the Super Star Cluster Alliance but also earn Modo a new enemy. All he had to do was send a simple message.
The cost of doing things is low, so why not do it?
Tsk, I’m truly an evil person…
Han Xiao was in a good mood as he turned his attention back to the screen.
At this moment, the sentencing had come to an end, and the dynasty officers looked upright at the camera, solemnly speaking.
“… For the above crimes, the Crimson Dynasty has decided to issue a death sentence!”
After that, the remote projection disappeared, and suddenly, a gap was exposed at the foot of the execution platform, where a fist-sized device rose up.
This looked very familiar to Han Xiao, and his eyes flashed as he slowly whistled. “The Universal Treasure of the dynasty, the Key of Destruction…”
At this moment, the surface of the Key of Destruction lit up in a matrix-like energy loop, and a circle of spatial channels suddenly appeared, unfolding in front of the two.
At the other end of the passage were the long-distance cannon rays of the dynasty’s army, filling the area with a dazzling glare.
Boom!
The next moment, a world-destroying energy surged out, filling every inch of the screen!
The picture panned out rapidly, turning into a wide-area perspective which overlooked the planet from the distant starry sky.
One could only see a glimmer of bright light blooming on the surface of the planet, followed by a dazzling star-like energy cluster, which expanded rapidly and in turn wrapped the planet in it.
As the energy cluster expanded to its limit, all of a sudden, the huge ball shrank to a point, like the image when an old-fashioned television was turned off.
Within the picture, the explosion site was totally empty, with the planet having disappeared without a trace, completely annihilated.
Traveler and the other Beyond Grade A who were already at death’s door had no power to resist the Key of Destruction, and not even their bones remained.
What a waste…
Han Xiao’s mouth contorted slightly.
In order to pull off this huge affair, the dynasty had deliberately chosen to utilize the cannons, pulling down a planet together with both of them. It was a pity that the bodies of the two were extremely rare research materials.
They were indeed a Universal Civilization. After so many years, they probably had a sizable collection of Beyond Grade A corpses within their freezer, so they had no need for more…
While Traveler was an enemy, seeing another Beyond Grade A being executed by a Universal Civilization still left Han Xiao a little depressed. He estimated that the other Beyond Grade As would also feel the same way.
Sigh, no matter how big a universe is, it cannot exceed the size of ambition. It’s difficult for the two parties to have a harmonious existence… In the face of the advanced civilizations, the Beyond Grade As are still in a weak position, and there are too few of us…
Thinking about the situation of the Beyond Grade As, Han Xiao sighed.
Just as he was about to turn off his broadcasting screen, he noticed a strange mental fluctuation through his senses.
“Who are you‽”
Han Xiao narrowed his eyes, snapping his head to look at the center of the room. His eyes sparkled with Mechanical Force as he instantly entered a combat state.
Within his vision, black flames were suddenly borne out of thin air, converging into the appearance of the Holy Accord’s leader, Oathkeeper.
Oathkeeper lightly stepped on the group, walking toward Han Xiao as he spoke.
“Black Star, there’s no need to be nervous. This is just a mental projection without any sort of combat capability. I came here specially to meet you. It’s good to see you. I would like to propose a deal with you.”
“You…”
Hearing this, Han Xiao furrowed his brows, sizing him up before speaking in an uncertain tone.
“… Are the Holy Accord’s leader?”
As he spoke, Oathkeeper stumbled and very nearly hit his head.
Hidden under his hood was a dumbfounded expression.
F*ck me, how do you even know this‽
