Chapter 64 — The Intelligence Network

After leaving that "Golden Canopy," which was filled with stench, blood, and hypocritical holiness, the mortal squad followed a complex network of abandoned ventilation ducts and slanted industrial slag chutes, silently sliding into the most hidden corner at the very bottom of the black market—Deep-Spider Alley.

This was the gathering place for the underground intelligence network and black market arms smugglers operating under the Gemini Lord. On both sides of the narrow, cold alleyway, dilapidated receiving antennas sparking wildly, Star-network pirate terminals burned out by high-voltage currents, and discarded mechanical shells were scattered everywhere. The air was thick with the burnt smell of hot circuit boards and the sweet, fishy scent of high-energy coolant.

"This is it." Elias stopped in front of a black iron door repurposed from the airlock of a giant battleship. A massive two-headed spider motif had been crudely plowed into the door plate with a welding torch. He raised his hand and knocked the heavy metal door ring in a specific frequency and rhythm.

"Click, click, click-click——"

The heavy mechanical lock on the airlock emitted a series of teeth-grinding friction sounds, then slowly pulled open a pitch-black crack. A bizarre alien head, wearing a high-energy gas mask with its right half entirely replaced by precision mechanical gears and infrared lenses, poked out.

This was the biggest arms smuggler and intelligence boss in Deep-Spider Alley—"One-Eyed Quinn."

"Come in, keep it down, fugitives." Quinn's voice, run through a synth-modulator, sounded shriveled and eerie. Deep within his right eye, a cold, sharp infrared scanning beam flickered, sweeping across the faces of Elias and the others. "Surviving the gravity-wash and carpet bombing of the Aries Vanguard, and still daring to swagger into the Taurus Lord's territory... Your names on the Divine Court's highest bounty board have already shot up to a staggering meat-price of thirty thousand high-grade star-coins each."

The squad stepped into the cold, dim underground warehouse, densely packed with contraband munitions, high-energy heavy hydrogen cores, and roughly processed ores smuggled from various interstellar battlefields.

"We don't need pointless pleasantries, Quinn." Elias didn't waste words, directly slamming a heavy leather sack full of gold coins onto the rough iron desk. Those were the holy gold coins they had seized from the officers of the defeated Aries Vanguard; under the dim light, they gleamed with the heavy luster of pure gold, emitting a muffled physical metallic clank.

"We need high-purity nebula-cobalt ore and high-density anti-radiation shield plating, enough to completely repair the structure of two mid-sized wasteland transport ships." Elias lowered his voice.

Quinn's mechanical single eye focused violently physically, flashing with a greedy cold light. He reached out a skeletal claw fitted with a haptic feedback glove, pulled the sack over in one swift motion, and expertly swept a high-energy ray over the authenticity and divine purity of the gold coins, before letting out a dry, cackling laugh:

"Straightforward. High-purity nebula-cobalt ore can provide powerful engine thermal protection for that rusty 'Off-track No. 1' of yours, and the high-density shield plating can withstand the direct physical tearing of high-tier spells even better. These things are all in the back section of the warehouse; you can haul them away anytime. However... for the sake of these genuine gold coins bearing the Aries divine mark, I've decided to include a priceless, earth-shattering piece of advice for free."

"What advice?" Caleb's mechanical prosthetic eye darkened slightly, his right hand instantly pressing close to the grip of the dark-matter reaper sniper rifle on his back, exuding a cold aura of alertness.

Quinn slowly extinguished the metal e-pipe dangling from his mouth, raising his hand and pressing down hard on the empty air.

"Bzzz——!"

A holographic projection of a higher-dimensional star-map, radiating a scarlet death-light, instantly unfurled above the iron desk in the center of the warehouse.

"Did you think escaping to the Taurus Lord's free black market meant stepping into an absolutely safe haven?" Quinn's voice suddenly dropped, filled with a cold, eerie mockery and pity. "Wrong. Dead wrong."

Under the solemn and shocked gazes of everyone, three high-energy vector routes thick as scorching blood veins on the scarlet star-map were extending at a terrifying, overwhelming speed from the Aries main star-realm toward the border sector where the Ring of Molten Iron was located!

"The news of Divine Envoy Phalan's disastrous defeat in the red stone Grand Canyon, and the vanguard flagship 'Silver Ram's Horn' being heavily damaged or even forced back by mortals, pierced through the Star-network three hours ago and reached the highest cabinet of the heavenly Divine Court." Quinn pointed at the giant star burning with golden holy flames in the center of the star-map, his tone carrying undisguisable fanaticism and fear:

"The Aries Lord flew into a thunderous rage in the temple! He has officially received the highest suppression edict issued by Jupiter! At this very moment, the Aries Lord is personally leading his three main legions—the Silver Ram Expeditionary Force—totaling over fifty thousand high-tier divine soldiers clad in Magma Gladiator heavy armor and twenty battleships, blotting out the sky and sun as they crush toward this star sector!"

"Fifty thousand high-tier divine soldiers... twenty main-star battleships?!" Caleb gasped, his rough face twitching violently. In the red stone Grand Canyon, dealing with just one vanguard flagship had nearly exhausted all the hidden cards of the mortal vanguard army. But this time, what was descending was an entire holy expeditionary force at full strength, enough to completely massacre an entire star system!

"Not only that." Quinn's long, cold mechanical finger continued to trace a circle of deathly dark-gold rainbow light on the star-map. "The 'Seven-Day Purification Order' issued by the Divine Court's highest executive department has completely sealed off the seven main subspace jump nodes on the periphery of the Ring of Molten Iron with its higher-dimensional energy halos. And the Taurus Lord, in order to avoid drawing fire upon himself, secretly reached a pact with the Aries Lord long ago—tonight at midnight, all outbound departure airlocks of the black market will be forcibly locked down, and the anti-air turrets fully activated!"

"This is a pre-arranged siege and annihilation trap!" Orion said sternly, his notched combat blade emitting a teeth-grinding hum in its scabbard. "The black market is not a sanctuary at all, but a dead end specifically designed to lure the snake out of its hole and beat the dog behind closed doors!"

Elias looked at the star-map radiating scarlet death-light before him. After a brief stagnation, his eyes regained an unshakeable toughness and calmness like steel rails.

"Nowhere is absolutely safe." Elias raised his head, tightening the clasp of the heavy cutting blade on his back. "But at least we got the ore and armor plates to repair the ships. Caleb, contact Nova, Lyra, and the veterans on the ship immediately. Use the final four hours to smelt the nebula-cobalt ore into the engine conduits and weld all the shield plating dead onto the ship's flanks! Have Lyra monitor the gravitational wave deflection of the departure airlocks in real time. Even if the airlocks are locked down, we are going to smash a path to survival right through this dead end!"

"Copy that! I'm on it!" Caleb nodded heavily, a bloodthirsty ruthlessness erupting in his single eye.

However, Vespera, standing to the side, leaned extremely elegantly against the warehouse's black iron door.

Beneath the profound hood, those enchantingly unparalleled violet eyes looked past the cold crack of the iron door, toward the deathly silent Void on the outskirts of the black market that was gradually being thoroughly dyed by the dark-gold purification halo.

In her higher-dimensional divine awareness horizon, billions of golden chains of destiny and causality were hanging down from deep within the vault of heaven, tightly binding all the mortals and divine officials in this sinful black market. She remembered vividly that dozens of cycle-days ago, it was she who had personally left the coordinates of this black market in this star sector as bait to snare rebels who dared to challenge the Divine Court's order. Now, the wheel of destiny had turned, and this blonde youth named Elias was leading his only remaining troops headlong into the net of law she had woven with her own hands.

"The seven-day purification halo has closed, and the Aries Lord's golden ram battle flag is about to descend..." The corner of Vespera's mouth slowly curled into a cold, cruel, yet boundlessly expectant eerie arc in the pitch-black shadows.

She turned her head, looking deeply at the blonde youth whose spine remained straight under absolute suffocating pressure, with no trace of retreat or despair in his lake-green pupils.

"Elias..." Vespera transmitted a higher-dimensional cold sneer deep in her mind that only she could hear, "You used mortal courage to charge through the canyon and tear apart the vanguard fleet. But this time, the Divine Court's highest suppression machine has started at full speed, and the gears of higher-dimensional rules are about to grind this place thoroughly into powder."

"Facing the thunderous wrath of the Aries Lord, facing this inescapable strangulation you've thrown yourself into..."

"Can you... create a miracle one more time?"

The warning lights deep in the black market quietly lit up with a cold, red pre-warning glow at this moment.

The true life-and-death strangulation, on the eve of nightfall, drew open its tragic curtain!