Chapter 24 — The Arrogance of the Divine Envoy

Three light-years away, in the Sixth Star Zone of the LinBoo Astrolabe, the Mining Hub Central Temple.

This was the core subordinate department under the jurisdiction of the Lord of the 6th House, Asclepius, handling central political affairs and mining taxes for the entire star zone.

A massive glazed dome hung high thousands of meters in the air. Flowing across its surface were the celestial tracks of the Twelve Zodiac Signs, interwoven from pure holy light. In the center of the grand hall, over a hundred Divine Court bureaucrats—wearing silver robes and high crowns—were methodically bustling about. Using floating holographic star maps and high-dimensional runic abacuses, they monitored and processed in real-time the vast mining output, population attrition, and health indices of mortal beings across the twelve star zones.

On massive glazed data pillars towering a hundred meters high, deep blue law runes poured down like waterfalls. That was the aggregate data of tens of thousands of bottom-tier mining planets across the universe. Every fluctuation of the data represented the life, death, and toil of millions of low-dimensional mortals. In the eyes of the Divine Court bureaucrats, these living beings were nothing but cold numbers and consumables on a ledger. They numbly checked off resource depletion reports for certain planets, casually crossing out the life-support rations for millions of waste populations. As for the bottom-tier mortals who died tragically from blind spot radiation or planetary core decay, the bureaucrats wouldn't even furrow a brow, as if merely wiping a speck of dust off a desk.

In the Divine Court's extremely strict, five-tiered power structure, Jupiter, the God of Wood, led the Inner Cabinet of the Ten Great Planetary Gods, wielding supreme executive power over the universe, while the Twin Gods hung independently high in the Sanctum. The Twelve Zodiac Lords controlled military power, and the Lords of the Twelve Houses handled political affairs. The latter two ran parallel and did not govern each other, each revolving according to the Sanctum's massive calculation tracks. The 6th House (God of Medicine / Health and Mining Hub Management) supervised mortal health tracks and biological gas distribution, but this supervision was not born of mercy; rather, it was to squeeze out the very last drop of mining value.

At this moment, the heavy political monitoring instrument located in the center of the grand hall suddenly emitted an extremely faint yet ear-piercing, shrill alarm!

"R-reporting to the Chief!"

A young bureaucrat stared fixedly at a pitch-black area on the edge of the holographic star map before him. Wiping cold sweat from his forehead, he said somewhat nervously, "The Tartarus edge blind spot under the 6th House's administration just captured anomalous high-microfrequency electromagnetic pulse fluctuations! That frequency amplitude is extremely bizarre... It seems incredibly similar to the high-dimensional resonant frequency of the Akashic Black Box!"

The Chief Official frowned. He raised a hand, pressed the corner of his eye, took the holographic blueprint, scanned it carefully for a few glances, and coldly scoffed:

"Wasn't Tartarus thoroughly erased by Lord God of Darkness during the routine annihilation strike three days ago? That edge blind spot is nothing but a group of mortal waste and scum who lost their mines and are waiting to starve to death in hypoxia. How could they generate such a deviation pulse? Perhaps it's just a faint sympathetic detonation from the residual high-energy waste ore of the collapsed planetary core. Follow standard political procedures: file an Observation Record Form No. 7 first, and wait for the routine audit next era..."

However, before he could finish his words.

Boom—!

The heavy, massive doors of the political grand hall—standing a hundred meters tall and cast from high-purity gold and glaze—were suddenly and roughly blasted open by an violently ferocious gravitational force! Golden metal fragments and glazed dust swept across the entire hall like a rainstorm! Several silver bureaucrats standing nearby were instantly blown away by the shockwave!

"Form up!"

Two rows of elite warriors of Aries, clad in heavy golden battle armor and wielding high-energy lightning lances, filed into the grand hall, reeking of the murderous intent of conquest. Sizzling electric arcs emanated from the spear tips, burning blinding scorch marks into the glazed engravings on the floor. The intense suppression of laws caused all the silver bureaucrats' faces to abruptly change color, retreating backward in terror.

Immediately following, a tall man draped in a fiery red battle cloak, his chest engraved with the violent Holy Mark of the Aries Ram's Horn, took a massive stride inside!

Among the Twelve Zodiac Lords, the Lord of Aries represented the pioneering, violent, and destructive fires of war of the First House. His entire body exuded an overwhelmingly fierce pressure of laws. The Holy Mark of the Aries Ram's Horn on his battle armor flowed with scalding, crimson magma. Every heavy step he took on the glazed floor triggered violent tremors and whimpers from the entire political grand hall—this was precisely the commander of the Aries Legion, the short-tempered and inherently bloodthirsty Lord of Aries!

Trailing closely behind the Lord of Aries was Gar, an advanced divine envoy clad in silver armor with a cold countenance. Divine Envoy Gar's hand rested on the holy gravity halberd at his waist, his eyes brimming with the aloofness of one who viewed low-dimensional beings as ants.

"L... Lord of Aries?!" The Chief Official's face went as pale as paper. He hastily led over a dozen subordinates in a bowing salute. "This is the political grand hall of the 6th House. For My Lord to overstep your authority and lead troops into the grand hall... seems to contradict the Sanctum's statutes regarding the separation of heaven's military and political affairs..."

"Save your bullshit statutes for someone else, civilian!"

The Lord of Aries violently cut him off. Those eyes, brimming with scarlet killing intent, locked onto the holographic star map like sharp blades:

"My military outpost just received a secret report! Although Tartarus suffered a routine annihilation strike three days ago, in that edge Deadzone, a gang of surviving low-dimensional waste actually delved deep into the collapsed planetary core and forcibly dug out the high-dimensional 'Black Box' and un-audited energy ore from a crashed warship! They even triggered a pulse resonance!"

The Chief Official's face changed drastically. "B-Black Box?! But that contains classified records of the entire star zone's mining quotas and military patrol routes..."

"Shut up!"

The Lord of Aries bellowed violently, an incredibly deep, sinister ruthlessness flashing through his eyes. He knew better than anyone that the black box recorded not just calculation track data, but the dark scandal of his Aries Legion secretly embezzling ore quotas and illegally mobilizing troops! If this batch of black boxes fell into the hands of the Lord of the 6th House, Asclepius, or the Inner Cabinet's inspectors, he, as a Zodiac Lord, would inevitably face political impeachment and divine accountability from the Cabinet! He absolutely could not let a single mortal survive with that black box!

"Report it to the Cabinet?! By the time you report it, my Aries battle flag will have rusted over! By the time your tedious, rotting political procedures finish running, who knows how many rotations the wasteland of the lower realms will have made!"

He violently swept his fiery red heavy cloak, taking a step forward. The massive gravitational pressure forced the Chief Official to retreat repeatedly, his legs growing so weak he almost dropped to his knees:

"Lord God Jupiter issued an absolute stability maintenance directive! Any unknown disturbance that could leak the Divine Court's secrets and scandals must be directly choked to death in the cradle! If the black box in that Deadzone gets out... can you abacus-pushing bureaucrats bear the responsibility?!"

The Lord of Aries could not tolerate the slightest grain of sand in his eye, much less allow his scandals to be exposed. In his eyes, the mortals of the lower realms were nothing but ants to be crushed at any moment.

He turned around, coldly issuing an order to the advanced divine envoy Gar behind him:

"Gar! Take your elite four-man divine envoy squad, immediately pilot the 'Golden Saint' heavy patrol boat, and descend upon the Tartarus star zone's blind spot!"

"Nominally, it's to 'recover the crashed warship and black box components'."

The Lord of Aries' eyes were cold as if looking at dead objects, a cruel arc spreading madly at the corners of his mouth:

"In reality... snatch every black box in that blind spot back for me tonight! And absolutely erase that gang of reckless mortal waste, survivors, and garbage for me! Leave no one alive! I would rather wrongly kill ten thousand than let half a living soul who knows the truth of the black box survive! After the deed is done, conveniently wipe the physical coordinates of that area into absolute nothingness!"

"Yes, My Lord!" Advanced Divine Envoy Gar knelt on one knee, his silver armor clashing with a crisp, ear-piercing sound, his eyes radiating a bloodthirsty light.

The Chief Official opened his mouth, wanting to dissuade this blatant overstepping of law enforcement authority and massacre to silence witnesses. But in the face of the Lord of Aries' scarlet pupils filled with monstrous killing intent and the extremely dangerous scandal crisis, he ultimately shrank his neck in fear, not daring to utter another word.

Half an hour later.

The dead-silent deep space barrier on the outskirts of the astrolabe blind spot was suddenly ripped open by a terrifying high-dimensional force, tearing a golden holy rift several kilometers long! The energy storm of the high-dimensional jump directly tore the floating starship debris around it into microscopic dust!

A heavy patrol boat, a hundred meters long, forged entirely of pure gold alloy and exuding a blinding, blazing radiance, boomed out of the high-dimensional jump gate like a cold, golden falcon! The high-energy gravity cannon arrays on both sides of the patrol boat lit up with deep blue death-light frequencies, compressing physical dents into the void visible to the naked eye.

In the front cabin of the patrol boat, Advanced Divine Envoy Gar wore his silver holy armor, the four wings of hard light on his back slowly unfurling. Behind him, three junior divine envoys holding holy gravity halberds wiped their battle lances with mocking expressions. The patrol boat's luxurious bulkheads were carved full of holy runes designed to repel low-dimensional pollution. The divine envoys were currently washing their battle boots with incense, disgusted by the dust of the mortal wasteland they were about to step upon.

Through the high-energy observation window, Gar looked down condescendingly at the dead, desolate Embers Camp below, filled with scrap iron and garbage. Those eyes, devoid of warmth, flickered with contempt and disgust born from the marrow.

"This is the mortal garbage dump with the anomalous fluctuations?" Divine Envoy Gar's voice sounded hoarse on the communication frequency. "Inferior physical structure, foul-smelling, filthy air... Lord of Aries truly overthinks things. For an anthill like this, we actually need to descend with holy halberds in hand."

"Captain Gar, should we directly use the ground-based annihilation cannons to level the entire camp?" A junior divine envoy beside him asked respectfully, his eyes looking as if at a pile of dead meat.

"What's the rush?" Divine Envoy Gar scoffed coldly. He slowly drew the holy halberd flowing with the radiance of gravitational laws from his waist. "Using ground-based cannons gives them too much face. Descend with me. I will step on the spine of their dignity and personally crush this reckless anthill!"

Boom—!

Blinding golden holy light illuminated the originally pitch-black night sky of the blind spot as if it were a pale daylight!

Terrifying holy gravitational oppression descended from the sky, pressing down like a massive mountain upon all the corrugated tin roofs and the heads of the mortals in the Embers Camp! The newly welded explosion-proof lead plates and heavy hydrogen sandwich on the perimeter let out agonizing sounds of fracturing; the explosion-proof lightbulbs popped and shattered! Dozens of Self-Defense Force warriors defending the outposts had their eyes turn bloodshot, their bones cracking. Crushed directly into the muddy water by the terrifying gravity, they let out agonizing screams!

On the inner high ground of the camp, veteran Caleb clenched his jaw tight. Under the extreme gravitational pressure, his mechanical iron arm emitted a shrill overload alarm. Violent red light shot out from his electronic prosthetic eye: "Enemy attack! Everyone fall back to the inner defense line! Heavy electromagnetic cannons, charge!"

And by his side, Elias stood amidst the howling wind and violent golden light, his tactical cloak flapping loudly. The boy's palm tightly gripped the hilt of the heavy cutting knife at his waist. Those lake-green eyes stared fixedly at the descending Golden Saint patrol boat in the sky, the killing intent burning deep in his eyes more bone-chilling than a blizzard!

A desperate situation descends!

The hounds of the Divine Court had already broken into the dead corner, and the newly formed Mortal Vanguard was about to welcome the bloodiest, most tragic head-on collision with the high-and-mighty gods above the wasteland! This first mortal-god battle, destined to rewrite the fate of the entire universe's astrolabe, abruptly tore open its prelude amidst the roaring wind and fury!