256: The sword is there, the sheath is there

The cold gleam flowing over the silver battle armor, and the Killing Intent condensed from mountains of corpses and seas of blood, instantly tore open a perfect vacuum in this noisy land.

The previously boisterous street fell silent in an instant.

The interstellar pirates with fierce eyes, the alien mercenaries of various forms, the black market merchants engaged in dirty deals… everyone seemed to have been put on pause, instinctively shutting up and backing away, making way for this walking calamity of death.

No one dared to speak, and no one even dared to look up directly.

In this lawless land that only worshipped violence, Su Lei and his silent legion were violence itself.

Su Lei turned directly into a dark, narrow alley stacked with giant shipping containers.

At the end of the alley, a flickering neon sign hung crookedly, displaying 'Thousand Eyes'.

Pushing open the creaking metal door, a thick smell, a mixture of spices and pheromones, wafted out.

Inside, a massive nutrient tank occupied most of the space.

Submerged in the murky green liquid was a jellyfish-like translucent gelatinous creature.

Around it, hundreds of eyeballs of various sizes rotated slowly like eerie satellites, greedily observing everything inside and out.

A thread of thought, a mix of hundreds of voices, like a cold snake, drilled directly into Su Lei's mind:

“I have everything you want here, as long as… you can afford the price.”

Su Lei seemed not to hear this mental noise, walked to the nutrient tank, and casually tossed a metal token, shimmering with data streams, onto the control panel.

The token came from the flagships of the three pirate fleets he had just massacred; it was the highest command key.

“The Star Lord’s VIP room.”

The floating cluster of eyeballs suddenly paused, all pupils contracting sharply, locking onto the token that represented slaughter and wealth.

“Heh heh, so it’s a distinguished guest of the Lord! My apologies, my apologies!”

Thousand Eyes's mental fluctuations instantly became extremely fawning: “The VIP room is naturally in the most honorable place, the Throne of Fallen Gods, the top of that black spire.”

Having received the answer, Su Lei turned and left.

“Guest!”

Thousand Eyes’s voice rang out urgently: “This key…”

“It’s yours as a reward.”

Su Lei’s voice drifted from outside the door; a command key, enough to drive the entire Fractured Bone Town mad, was treated by him as nonchalantly as payment for directions.

All of Thousand Eyes's eyeballs narrowed with pleasure.

However, when one of its eyeballs inadvertently swept over the retreating figures of Su Lei and his group, that pleasant mental fluctuation suddenly froze.

It saw it! From the gaps in the armor of that legion, an icy blue energy glow, originating from the same source as Astrea, the Queen of the Valkyrie Empire, was emanating!

All hundreds of Thousand Eyes’s eyeballs instantly, simultaneously, bulged wide!

The Throne of Fallen Gods, the only orderly building in Fractured Bone Town.

It was entirely cast from an unknown black alloy, like a sharp sword piercing the dome of the nest city, pointing directly at the cold Universe.

Below the tower, teams of soldiers in black power armor, armed with gauss rifles, patrolled with iron discipline; unlike the riff-raff outside, their movements were as precise as machines, exuding the coldness of iron and blood.

They were the Star Lord’s private army, the Starfall Guards.

As Su Lei and his group approached, a burly modified human with a general's star on his shoulder stepped forward, blocking their path.

Half of his face was metal, and his crimson electronic eye scanned back and forth.

“The Lord has only invited you alone.”

The electronically synthesized voice was devoid of emotion.

Su Lei stopped.

“Where the sword is, the sheath is.”

“This is the Lord’s command.”

The modified general’s voice remained cold.

Behind him, the guard soldiers simultaneously raised their guns with a whoosh, dangerous blue electric arcs condensing at the muzzles.

The air seemed to be sucked dry, every flowing wisp of wind solidified into a deadly blade.

Su Lei said nothing more.

He merely took a step forward.

The twelve Royal Guards behind him also took a step forward simultaneously.

Boom!

An indescribably terrifying Aura surged up from these thirteen individuals!

It was not merely pressure, but thirteen pure Killing Intentions honed from billions of corpses, now twisted into a single rope, transforming into an invisible eye of the storm that instantly enveloped the entire square!

Those elite Starfall Guards felt as if they were being stared down by thirteen ancient Vicious Beasts, their gun-gripping arms trembling uncontrollably, and even the air in their lungs was completely squeezed out.

The modified general's electronic eyes flashed with crimson light, and internal alarms were already screaming piercingly.

He had no doubt that if he spoke another word, these thirteen individuals would completely wipe the entire Throne of Fallen Gods from this planet!

“…The Lord is waiting for you on the top floor.”

Finally, the modified general squeezed out this sentence with difficulty, stepping aside to make way.

Su Lei’s expression was indifferent as he walked directly into the black spire that had opened for him.

The elevator was fast and steady.

The metal door slid open silently, and the sight before him caused a barely perceptible pause in Su Lei’s gaze.

The entire top of the tower was a huge, spacious circular platform, paved with a single piece of highly polished obsidian.

Overhead, the dome was completely transparent, offering a panoramic view of the vast sea of stars.

Standing here, it felt as if one stood at the center of the Universe, treading upon the Milky Way, able to pluck stars with a hand.

In the center of the platform, on a chessboard carved from a stellar core, the black and white pieces had reached the endgame.

A middle-aged man in an ancient Dao robe with star patterns, his back to the entrance, held a white piece, lost in thought.

He looked like a refined scholar, devoid of any powerful Aura, a completely different person from the towering, star-lit giant in his memory.

“You’ve come, a little slower than I expected.”

The Star Lord didn't turn around, his voice as gentle as if he were reminiscing with an old friend.

“On the way, I stepped on a few ants.”

Su Lei walked to the other side of the chessboard, his gaze falling upon the game.

“Sit, and finish this game with me.”

The Star Lord gestured to the opposite side.

Su Lei sat down as instructed.

On the chessboard, the black pieces formed a net, having almost completely slaughtered the white Dragon, leaving it with only its last breath.

This was a deadly, inescapable trap.

“What do you want to say?”

“This game represents our situation.”

The Star Lord finally spoke: “You have already lost.”

Su Lei did not retort.

He merely reached out, and from the Qi box, picked up a white piece that belonged to him.

The Star Lord watched him, waiting for him to make that last futile struggle.

However… *snap*.

A crisp sound.

That white piece did not attempt to revive, nor did it try to break through the encirclement.

It landed on the very edge of the board, in a desolate, abandoned corner completely unrelated to the main battlefield.

With one piece placed, the situation changed dramatically!

The dead game, it lived!

That solitary white piece, like a singularity thrown into another dimension, instantly stirred up a monstrous wave that no one could have predicted!

“You…”

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