159: Chapter 163 The Severed Wrist, A Sharp Blade in the Shadows

Star Crown Palace, the main planet of the Eternal Star Crown Federation.

Among the tens of thousands of miniature holographic projection screens in front of the floating throne, one had now turned completely black.

The black screen represented the highest level of physical communication silence.

Just five seconds ago, this screen was still flickering with the quantum data stream sent back by the infiltration squad leader of the Shadow-class Phased Stealth Ship: Ripper.

That data stream was perfect; within the blue bands were the extremely primitive defense structural diagrams of the mining star and the biological parameters of those black giants.

Standing below the throne, the adjutant was skillfully packaging this data, preparing to input it into the Federation's supercomputing matrix for targeted weapon research and development.

Then, that blue data stream changed color.

There was no warning from any alarm system.

The blue light instantly shifted into a nauseating, dark red that possessed a near-biological activity.

Before the adjutant's hand could leave the console, that red data surged directly back through the quantum channel and into the screen.

Virtual rust began to sprout on the screen.

“Warning! Underlying logic override! Life support system collapse! Stealth protocol forced physical overload!”

The piercing alarm sounded for only half a second.

The Chess Player, sitting on the throne, made a move.

He didn't stand up, nor did he ask the adjutant what had happened.

Faced with dirty data capable of burning the main planet's servers along the quantum channel, the supreme ruler of this empire spanning four hundred star systems decisively raised his hand and slammed it onto the red physical fuse button beside him.

Bang.

A soft sound.

The Seventh Resource Sector under the Star Crown Palace, three Deep Space Communication Relay Stations, and all Probe Nodes connected to that mining star's coordinates were detonated by the Federation itself at the same time.

To cut off a potentially infectious virus network cable, The Chess Player directly leveled infrastructure worth tens of millions of points on the Federation's periphery.

That blackened screen was the result of the fuse.

“The Ripper, decommission it from the Federation's active service roster.”

The Chess Player's voice didn't tremble at all, still sounding like a precise, wound-up machine. “Posthumously recognize all officers and soldiers on board as Federation Martyrs.”

The adjutant wiped away cold sweat: “Sir, that stealth ship was extremely expensive to build. Are we not going to recover it...”

“Recover it with what?” The Chess Player's gaze fell on the black screen. “The opponent used a Psionic Virus we cannot parse to reach our gates through our own channel. That ship has already become his trophy.”

The Chess Player pulled up a large-scale star map on the console that covered tens of thousands of light-years.

That dead star system labeled 409X was right at the edge of the star map.

His finger drew a circle around that dead star system.

“This thing cannot be measured by the logic of civilization warfare.”

“Issue a highest-level blockade order. Cut off all navigation nodes within three hundred light-years of those coordinates.”

“I want to turn him into a lonely island on the great map.”

Mining Planet No. 3, Equatorial Crater Base.

The thousand-meter-long gray stealth ship, looking like a dead ribbonfish, was dragged by dozens of adamantine chains and crashed heavily beside the boiling forging vat.

Servitors, like a swarm of soulless ants, swarmed over it dragging cutting machines.

Li Cang stood in the operations cabin, looking at this trophy that had been burned beyond recognition by the cyber virus.

He didn't order it to be repaired.

The battle axe frigate needed an escort, and this ship had a good foundation.

But he didn't need a transparent spaceship; he wanted something even more ruthless than that.

“Detach that Phased Generator.”

His command was transmitted to the bottom deck.

Several Astartes roughly tore out the stealth ship's core machine along with its wiring.

This thing was huge, but the fusion prompt given by the system's civilization forge was very interesting.

[Phased Stealth Generator: Can significantly distort light and shadow refraction and gravitational waves, eliminating physical mass readings.]

[Warning: This module is absolutely incompatible with Astartes masterwork armor materials; armor coating fusion cannot be performed.]

Warhammer's heavy armor was meant for ramming people, not for hiding; this was quite reasonable.

Li Cang dragged the Phased Generator into the crucible.

“Don't put it on the armor.” He watched the dark golden flames ignite in the crucible. “Put it on the flesh.”

He opened the cold storage, which still contained the corpses of twelve High Elf special forces soldiers who had been killed by mines or dismembered by chainswords.

These subjects were excellent, with high muscle density and fast neural responses.

Throw them into the crucible to burn along with the Phased Generator.

Li Cang didn't use conventional gene purification.

He brought out the remaining toxin sac residue from that Abyssal Star Beast in the Battle Royale and added it as a catalyst.

This was an extremely morbid puzzle.

Mixing alien technology with Star Beast toxins and Warhammer brutality.

[Biological and mechanical high-intensity dimensionality reduction fusion in progress.]

[Detection of high-intensity rejection.]

The golden flames in the crucible twisted into purple.

Li Cang didn't spend extra points to suppress it. This rejection was exactly what he wanted.

Assassins cannot have the absolute rationality of machines; they need pain to maintain their clarity while lurking.

Ten minutes later, the crucible's hatch opened.

Twelve figures walked out.

They wore no armor; their entire bodies were wrapped only in a layer of extremely tight, dead-gray matte-textured skin-suits.

No, those weren't skin-suits.

Those were the metal circuits of the phased stealth generator, forcibly pierced into their spines and combined with the Abyssal Star Beast toxins to grow into a layer of “living camouflage skin” on their bodies.

These things had no faces; there was only a flat, gray layer of keratin where a face should be.

They stood under the searchlights of the operations cabin.

But the radar showed that the position was empty.

No breathing, no heartbeat, no mass readings.

[Obtained Mutant Unit Prototype: Executioner Assassin (Phased Venom Version).]

[Trait: Absolute Concealment.]

[Attack Method: Releases high-dimensional Abyssal-level toxins upon physical contact, capable of melting targets on both physical and data levels.]

Li Cang looked at these monsters standing in the shadows.

The hedgehog formation of the Outpost Base had finally grown a row of invisible poisonous spines.

Heavy artillery for home defense, Astartes to break formations, and assassins to slit throats.

This backwater place finally looked somewhat like a warlord's territory.

Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the [Civilization Credit Rating] on the left of the console and the [Large Map Resource Network] on the right both flashed with eye-piercing red circles.

It wasn't an enemy encounter alarm.

It was an economic death sentence.

[Warning: Your civilization coordinates have been placed under an absolute blockade order by the Eternal Star Crown Federation.]

[Your all external logistics nodes have been physically severed.]

[The surrounding star sector markets have initiated an indefinite ban on your goods.]

Li Cang glanced at the two thousand Servitors that had just been produced in the resource bank.

The amount of nutrient solution and energy these workers consumed daily was an astronomical figure.

He had originally planned to plunder a bit and then go to the black market to buy supplies.

Now, the network cable had been pulled. The resources on hand could only keep this Forge World running for seven more days at most.

Once seven days passed, the Servitors would stall due to a lack of food, and the entire crater would turn back into a pile of scrap metal.

Before the enemy could even attack, he would be starved to death by this massive industrial machine.

Li Cang didn't bang on the table or smash the screen.

He turned around.

Deep in the operations cabin, that deduction light screen was still quietly glowing.

Deduction time and reality were isolated from each other.

Within the light screen.

That figure in crude golden armor from behind had just made the High Priest of Mars kneel.

That was an entire mechanical planet with a complete industrial chain and endless resources.

Li Cang looked at that golden back.

Since others had blocked the path in reality.