211: Throne of Bones and Gods of Flesh and Blood

"That's not a space station."

Chen Feng stood at the front of the bridge of the vengeance, hands tucked into his trench coat pockets. His voice was kept extremely low by the sight before him.

Through the massive observation window, everyone on the bridge held their breath.

Against the backdrop of a dark-red dead star, a hideous steel fortress floated in orbit. But that wasn't the most nauseating part; what truly made one's scalp tingle was the fortress's foundation—it wasn't built on rock or a metal framework, but rather 'grown' onto the pale, dozens-of-kilometers-long spinal column of an ancient creature.

Massive ribs stabbed toward the sky like curved blades, while countless thick metal pipes burrowed deep into the bone like parasites, siphoning the residual marrow energy within. Dark-red biological tissue spread between the gaps in the metal plates like a thick layer of mold, forcibly bonding machinery and corpse together.

The entire fortress resembled a malformed tumor, pulsating silently in the vacuum of space.

"Beautiful... it's simply too beautiful."

K was pressed against the glass, his cloudy, bloodshot eyes staring fixedly at the Bone Fortress. His breathing was rapid, like an addict seeing the highest purity of drugs.

The bandages on his body trembled slightly from excitement, and he didn't even bother to deal with his skin, which was pixelating and disintegrating.

"This is the secret Giant Star Mining has been hiding... They aren't mining; they're archeologists, they're grave robbers!" K's voice was hoarse and fanatical, his fingernails scratching the reinforced glass with a piercing sound. "Look at those vascular pipelines! That's perfect symbiosis! They found it... the ultimate answer to evolution!"

Chen Feng turned his head and gave K a cold glance.

In the eyes of this madman, it was a holy land of evolution, but in Chen Feng's eyes, it was a slaughterhouse built upon countless lives.

"Eve, scan the structural diagrams." Chen Feng withdrew his gaze, his fingers tapping lightly on the armrest. "Find the location of the landing pad."

"The interference is very strong; there's some kind of biological field shielding the radar." Eve's fingers danced in the air, her long silver hair moving without wind. "We can only use visual guidance. Boss, the energy reactions there are very unstable, it's like... it's alive."

"Whether it's alive or not, we'll know once we go up and see."

Chen Feng turned and walked toward the airlock, his cloak whipping behind him in a sharp arc.

"Reno, bring your elite team. Grom, you come too."

The Rock Guard Clan biologist, nearly three meters tall, was stunned for a moment before nodding silently. He picked up his massive, specially-made alloy case and followed Chen Feng's lead.

"The main fleet will stay on the perimeter on high alert." Chen Feng issued his final command over the comm channel. "If we don't come out within two hours, use the main cannons to blast this pile of bones into ash."

...The shuttle threaded its way through the massive ribs, eventually forcing a docking at an entrance resembling a valve.

*Chiii—*

The sound of air pressure balancing rang out, and the heavy hatch slid open slowly.

A nauseating stench immediately rushed toward them. It wasn't a simple smell of blood, but a strange odor mixed with formalin, machine oil, rotting meat, and some kind of cloyingly sweet incense.

"Cough, cough..."

Several elite miners couldn't help but dry heave.

Chen Feng frowned and raised his hand to activate his protective suit's mask filtration system.

This place didn't look like the interior of a military fortress at all.

The walls of the corridor weren't cold metal, but a layer of translucent, fascia-like substance, with intricate pipelines covered beneath. What flowed through those pipes wasn't coolant, but a dark-red liquid, pulsating slightly with a low-frequency rhythm.

*Thump... Thump... Thump...*

That dull sound was like the heartbeat of the entire fortress.

Grom stopped in his tracks, stretching out his rough, massive hands to press them gently against the wall.

As a member of the Rock Guard Clan, his perception of life far exceeded that of ordinary people. At this moment, this man who was as hard as rock showed an expression of extreme pain and compassion.

"They are crying."

Grom's voice was deep, like a resonance coming from his chest.

"Who's crying?" Reno asked, raising his heavy bolter warily, his mechanical eye scanning the empty corridor.

"The walls, the floors, the ceilings..." Grom's fingers trembled slightly. "Under every metal plate here, life force is being squeezed out. This isn't a building at all; it's... it's an instrument of torture. It's the most sacrilegious imprisonment of life."

"Those bastards at Giant Star Mining." Reno spat, the hydraulic rods on his mechanical arm letting out an angry hum. "What the hell are they doing here?"

"Keep moving."

Chen Feng interrupted the group's emotions, his Gauss pistol already switched off safety.

"K, lead the way. Where is that thing you mentioned?"

K was currently squatting on the ground, obsessively using a finger to dab a bit of mucus seeping from the corner of the wall into his mouth, his face showing a look of intoxication. Hearing Chen Feng's words, he jerked his head up and pointed toward the deep darkness at the end of the corridor.

"The core area... is right at the location of that heart." K grinned, revealing a set of broken teeth. "But I smell... the scent of watchdogs."

Before his voice could fade.

From the depths of the previously deathly silent corridor, a series of rhythmic and stiff footsteps suddenly echoed.

*Clack, clack, clack.*

It was the sound of metal striking bone.

The lights flickered a few times and then died out completely. Only the dim red light of the emergency lamps remained, casting a group of swaying shadows onto the walls, stretching them long.

"What the hell are those things?"

A miner cried out in terror.

The things drew closer.

They had human silhouettes, but their bodies had been modified beyond recognition.

Limbs had been crudely severed and replaced with rusty hydraulic prosthetics; chests had been cut open to house heavy armor plates and energy cores; half of their heads had been sliced away, replaced by infrared sensors and scopes.

The most terrifying part was that parts of rotting skin and tattered clothing still remained on them.

"Corpse Ghouls..."

K let out a strange laugh. "These are the failures. Reactivating the nervous systems of the dead and hooking them up to fire-control chips. Cheap, obedient, and... utterly fearless of death."

"Roar—!!!"

The leading Corpse Ghoul suddenly let out a non-human roar, the armor plate on its chest sliding open to reveal a six-barreled rotary machine gun.

"Take cover!"

Reno roared, his body instantly shifting to block Chen Feng.

*Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—*

Tongues of fire spat out, and a dense storm of metal instantly shredded the fascia walls on both sides of the corridor, dark-red liquid splashing everywhere.

"Take them down!"

Chen Feng's eyes were icy as he fired precise shots with his Gauss pistol.

*Bang! Bang!*

Two bullets accurately drilled into the Corpse Ghoul's sensor eye sockets, directly blowing apart its control hub. The Corpse Ghoul swayed and fell to the ground like a pile of scrap metal.

But more Corpse Ghouls surged forward. They knew no pain; even if their legs were shot off, they continued to crawl forward with their hands, firing all the while.

"A bunch of trash!"

Reno roared and charged out.

In this narrow corridor, his black mechanical arm, sourced from the wreckage of a High-Dimensional Warship, was the most terrifying weapon.

He braved the dense hail of bullets, crossing into the group of Corpse Ghouls in a few strides. His mechanical arm swept across, bringing with it a shrill whistle of wind.

*Crack!*

Three Corpse Ghouls were directly snapped at the waist, various parts and rotten flesh exploding all over the walls.

Reno was seeing red. He grabbed a Corpse Ghoul's head, his five fingers exerting force.

"Die for me!"

Just as he was about to crush the skull, by the light of the muzzle flash, he saw a metal identification tag hanging from the Corpse Ghoul's neck.

It was a cheap ID tag, blackened by smoke.

Engraved on it was a line of crooked small characters: [Ashen Earth Star Mining Area No. 7, No. 9527, Li Ergou, hopes to save enough money to go home and marry a wife.]

Reno's movement suddenly froze.

This wasn't some monster.

This was clearly a brother who had once scrounged for food in the pits with him! These were the compatriots who had been dragged away and 'disposed of' by Giant Star Mining because of overwork, accidents, or resistance!

In life, they had their last drop of blood and sweat squeezed dry, and in death, even their corpses weren't spared, being turned into these neither-human-nor-ghost killing machines!

"Giant Star Mining..."

Reno's voice was trembling, a roar woven from extreme anger and grief.

"I'll fuck your ancestors for eighteen generations!!!"

*Boom!*

The Corpse Ghoul in his hand was slammed ruthlessly against the wall, instantly turning into a puddle of flesh.

Reno didn't stop. He was like a crazed tiger, charging into the Corpse Ghoul pack. But he no longer used his mechanical arm to shred them; instead, in an almost cathartic manner, he smashed those control chips one by one with his fists, giving these tortured souls a quick end.

"Rest in peace, brothers."

"I'm sending you on your way!"

The battle ended quickly.

The ground was a mess.

Reno knelt amidst a pile of scrap metal and flesh, his hand tightly clutching that ID tag, his knuckles white from the force.

Chen Feng walked up behind him and patted his broad shoulder.

"Keep the tag safe." Chen Feng's voice was soft, yet it carried a bone-chilling coldness. "I will settle this debt with Augustus. With interest."

Reno took a deep breath and stood up. He didn't look back, only silently tucked the ID tag into his chest pocket, close to his heart.

"Boss, let's keep going. I want to personally tear down that core."

The group continued deeper.

After passing through several defensive gates, they arrived at a massive circular hall.

In the center of the hall stood a giant transparent cylindrical container that reached the ceiling. The container was filled with a pale-green nutrient solution, with countless thick cables connected to the base.

And around the hall, thousands of small hibernation pods were arranged in dense rows.

"Eve, get to work."

Chen Feng pointed to the nearby control console.

Eve immediately stepped forward, pulling a data cable from her wrist and plugging it directly into the terminal interface.

"Cracking the firewall... Oh my god."

Eve's fingers suddenly stopped, and in those eyes that always flickered with the light of rationality, a look of shock appeared for the first time.

"Boss, you have to see this."

A holographic screen expanded in the air.

It was a top-secret file named the 'Titan Project'.

"What Giant Star Mining is doing here isn't mining at all." Eve's voice trembled slightly. "They are conducting 'living weaponization' experiments. They are trying to create a controllable 'god' by fusing ancient biological genes, high-dimensional mechanical technology, and human souls."

Image after image flashed on the screen.

Countless miners were forcibly injected with some kind of black genetic serum, their bodies mutating before they died in agony.

Only a tiny fraction of individuals survived, having their prefrontal lobes removed and control chips implanted, becoming the Corpse Ghouls seen earlier.

And this was merely the 'fuel'.

"They extracted the life essence of tens of thousands of failures and channeled it all into that thing." Eve pointed to the massive cylindrical container in the center. "Codename: Chimera."

"That is the ultimate weapon they want to create. A monster with the physical strength of a high-dimensional being and the computational power of a machine."

Grom looked at the data, his massive fist slamming onto the control console, denting the hard alloy surface.

"This is a crime! This is the most thorough violation of the laws of life!"

Chen Feng stared at the data on the screen, his gaze becoming increasingly calm.

He was performing a value assessment.

The cruelty of this technology was appalling, but its technical content... was extremely high. If he could get this data, even just a part of it, Hanhai Trade's biotechnology would achieve a leapfrog advance.

This was the cruel truth of the universe.

The progress of civilization was often accompanied by bloody original sin.

"What is the current status of that 'Chimera'?" Chen Feng asked.

"Data shows it's in deep hibernation," Eve said, her fingers flying over the controls. "Completion rate 98%. Only the final awakening sequence is left."

Suddenly, Eve's expression changed.

"Wait!"

"What's wrong?"

"Someone is operating the system!" Eve cried out. "It's not me! Another set of credentials is accessing the core database from the internal network! Someone is trying to force the awakening of Chimera!"

"What?"

Chen Feng's pupils constricted.

Besides them, there was someone else here?

*Woo—woo—woo—*

Piercing alarms blared without warning, and rotating red lights dyed the entire hall into a sea of blood.

"Warning! Warning! Intrusion detected in the core area! Isolation protocols initiated!"

*Boom!*

The entrance gate behind them slammed down, and several massive metal bolts locked their retreat.

"Dammit, we're locked in!" Reno raised his gun, aiming at the control console. "Eve, can you open it?"

"No! The other party's clearance is higher than mine! That's a physical lockout!" Eve shouted anxiously. "Someone beat us to it! And they know the system here like the back of their hand!"

Chen Feng spun around, his gaze stabbing like a knife toward the shadows on the other side of the hall.

There was an inconspicuous maintenance door there.

At that moment, the door was slowly opening.

"It seems we aren't the only ones who want to pluck the fruit."

Chen Feng's finger rested lightly on the grip of the pistol at his waist, a dangerous curve tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Come out."

"Let me see which gods have the nerve to steal from my plate."

From the shadows of the maintenance door, several figures wearing black full-coverage combat armor slowly stepped out. On their chest emblems, a dripping black skull was prominently printed.

Black Water Conglomerate.

And standing among them was a man wearing a high-level Giant Star Mining uniform, holding a complex controller in his hand, looking at Chen Feng and the others with a mocking smile.

It was the Commander of this fortress, who was supposed to have already evacuated.

"Chen Feng, the upstart of Hanhai Trade."

The Commander toyed with the controller in his hand, looking at them like a group of trapped beasts.

"Thank you for helping me clear out the trash outside. In return, I'll let you be the first meal for the 'God' upon its awakening."

His finger pressed down hard on the red button.

Inside the massive cylindrical container in the center of the hall, two points of crimson light suddenly lit up.

Those were eyes.

A pair of eyes filled with tyranny, chaos, and hunger.

*Crack...*

A crack appeared on the glass surface of the container.