Chapter 29: The Heart of the Pirate King
Location: Inside the Red Leviathan - The Bridge
The stench of ozone and rotting meat was overpowering.
The Crimson Emperor—now a monstrosity of fused flesh and steel—shrieked. Dozens of grey, spiked tentacles erupted from the floor, aiming to skewer Jiang Chen from all angles.
"CONSUME! CONSUME! CONSUME!"
Jiang Chen didn't panic. He moved like smoke.
[Grandmist Art: Void Step.]
He flickered through the barrage of tentacles. Every time a spike came close, he simply wasn't there anymore. He reappeared on the ceiling, hanging upside down thanks to gravity manipulation.
"You're sloppy," Jiang Chen criticized, looking down at the bloated mass. "You used to be a Warlord. Now you're just a cancer cell."
He dropped.
[Trinity Art: Vertical Horizon.]
Nightfall slashed downwards. A crescent of purple energy cut through the thick bundle of nerves connecting the Emperor to the ship's mainframe.
SPARK.
The bridge consoles exploded. The lights died, replaced by the red emergency strobes.
"MY... SHIP..." The Emperor roared in pain. "YOU SEVERED... THE LINK!"
"I'm severing more than that," Jiang Chen landed on the Emperor's massive, heaving shoulder.
He raised his sword to strike the neck.
Suddenly, the flesh on the Emperor's shoulder split open. A mouth formed—right under Jiang Chen's feet.
CHOMP.
It tried to bite his leg off.
Jiang Chen stomped.
[Chaos Sutra: Heavy Step (100x Gravity).]
CRUNCH.
His boot smashed the mouth's teeth into powder. The impact force traveled through the Emperor's body, rupturing organs.
"Get off me!" The Emperor panicked. He realized this wasn't a fight. It was an execution.
The Emperor's chest cavity opened. A glowing red orb—his original core, corrupted by grey streaks—was visible. And embedded inside it was a triangular metallic object.
The Key.
"YOU WANT IT?" The Emperor laughed maniacally. "COME INSIDE!"
The chest cavity expanded, turning into a massive vortex. It wasn't sucking air; it was sucking mana. It tried to drain Jiang Chen's energy reserves instantly.
[Warning: Void Drain Detected.]
[Mana dropping: 5%... 10%...]
Jiang Chen smiled.
"You want my energy?"
He deactivated his Void Walker Suit's mana filters. He exposed his Grandmist Core directly to the vortex.
"Choke on it."
He poured pure, undiluted Grandmist Energy—the energy of Creation—straight into the Void vortex.
It was like pouring molten gold into a plastic cup.
The Emperor's absorption couldn't handle the density. The grey Void energy inside him reacted violently to the purple Grandmist.
"TOO... HEAVY!" The Emperor screamed. "IT BURNS!"
"It's called indigestion," Jiang Chen thrust Nightfall deep into the exposed core.
"Trinity Art: Soul Purge."
White fire exploded from the blade. It burned the grey corruption out of the Emperor's body in seconds. The flesh withered, turning to ash. The metal throne melted.
The massive body of the Crimson Emperor disintegrated, leaving only silence and a pile of dust.
Hovering in the center of the dust pile was the triangular object.
[Item Acquired: Galactic Key (Fragment 1/3)]
[Description: Unlocks the Crimson Gate of the Great Barrier.]
Jiang Chen grabbed the Key. It was warm.
"One down," he whispered. "Two to go."
Location: Space – Outside Oasis-4
While Jiang Chen dismantled the leader, the space battle was reaching its climax.
The Void Piercer was putting on a show.
"Wheee!" Feng Xi spun the dreadnought in a barrel roll that shouldn't be physically possible for a ship that size.
The ship's Void Shields absorbed the pirate laser fire effortlessly.
"Target lock!" Feng Xi shouted. "Main guns are boring. Let's use the spicy ones!"
She activated the Solar Turrets (upgraded with her own mana).
Beams of concentrated sunlight pierced the darkness. Every time a beam hit a pirate ship, the vessel didn't just explode—it melted into slag.
Meanwhile, Mo You was having her own fun.
She wasn't on the ship. She was in space.
She had enveloped herself in a Shadow Dragon Avatar, flying through the vacuum without a suit. She landed on the hull of a pirate frigate. She phased through the metal, slaughtered the bridge crew in three seconds, and phased out before the ship drifted dead in space.
She was a ghost. A rumor. A death sentence.
Suddenly, the pirate fleet stopped firing.
The massive Red Leviathan—the flagship—had gone dark. Its engines died.
A transmission broadcasted on all frequencies.
"This is Jiang Chen."
The Sovereign's voice was calm, projected from the dead flagship.
"Your Emperor is dead. I have the Key."
"You have ten seconds to surrender. Or I let my wife drive the dreadnought through your formation."
On the bridge of the Void Piercer, Feng Xi pouted. "Hey! I'm a good driver!"
The pirates looked at the melting wreckage of their comrades. They looked at the silent, terrifying black dreadnought.
One by one, the red ships powered down their weapons.
[Surrender Accepted.]
[Victory: The Jiang Clan.]
Location: Oasis-4 – The Aftermath
Jiang Chen returned to the golden moon not as a customer, but as a King.
The Red Sun Cartel was dissolved instantly. Their assets—warehouses, ships, and billions of credits—were seized by the Merchant Guild and held in escrow for Jiang Chen.
Back in the All-Seeing Eye tower, the old Tortoise Observer was trembling.
"You... you actually did it," the Observer stared at the Key in Jiang Chen's hand. "The Crimson Emperor ruled the Outer Rim for fifty years. You ended him in an hour."
"He was sick," Jiang Chen said, pocketing the Key. "The Void made him weak."
"So," the Observer swallowed. "You have the Pirate Key. Where to next?"
Jiang Chen pulled up the map.
"The Hive Mother," Jiang Chen pointed to a sector covered in green slime. "The Bio-Sector."
"The Hive Mother?" The Observer recoiled. "That is suicide. The Bio-Sector is a living organism. The planets themselves will try to eat you. And the Hive Mother... she commands the Zerg Swarm."
"Does she have the Key?"
"Yes. She wears it as a crown."
"Then we go there," Jiang Chen stood up.
"Wait!" The Observer called out. "There is... a rumor. About the Hive Mother."
"What rumor?"
"They say she is looking for a mate."
Jiang Chen paused. Mo You's eyes narrowed dangerously. Feng Xi giggled.
"A mate?" Jiang Chen asked. "What kind of mate?"
"Someone with strong genetic material," the Observer eyed Jiang Chen. "Someone... Apex. If you go there, she might not fight you. She might try to... breed with you."
The temperature in the room dropped to absolute zero.
Mo You drew her daggers. Her aura flared, cracking the floor.
"Let her try," Mo You hissed, her voice sounding like grinding tectonic plates. "I will skin that bug alive."
Feng Xi nodded aggressively. "No breeding! Only burning!"
Jiang Chen coughed awkwardly.
"Right. No breeding. Just Key retrieval."
He turned to leave.
"Observer, send the loot from the Cartel to Terra Nova. My father needs resources to build the defense grid."
"At once, Sovereign."
Location: The Void Piercer – En Route to the Bio-Sector
The ship was in Warp.
Jiang Chen sat in the Captain's quarters. He was inspecting the Key.
It wasn't just metal. It was a data drive.
"System. Analyze."
[Decryption Complete.]
[Data Fragment 1/3: The History of the Barrier.]
[Log Entry: The Barrier was not built to keep us OUT. It was built to keep IT IN.]
"Keep what in?" Jiang Chen frowned.
"The Primordial Source?" Mo You asked, bringing him a cup of tea.
"Maybe," Jiang Chen tapped the table. "Or maybe the Source isn't a treasure. Maybe it's a cage."
He looked at the second destination. The Hive World.
"Husband," Mo You sat on the armrest of his chair. "If that bug queen touches you..."
"I know, I know," Jiang Chen sighed. "You'll destroy the planet."
"No," Mo You leaned in, whispering in his ear. "I will be very... disappointed."
Jiang Chen shivered. A disappointed Dragon wife was scarier than a Void Lord.
"Approaching Bio-Sector," the AI announced.
"Drop out of Warp," Jiang Chen commanded.
VWOOM.
They emerged into real space.
And immediately, the sensors screamed.
There were no stars here. The space was filled with green gas.
And floating in the gas were... eggs.
Trillions of them. Ranging from the size of a car to the size of a moon.
[Welcome to the Bio-Sector.]
[Life Signs: Infinite.]
A psychic wave hit the ship. It was a voice. Sultry, sticky, and overwhelming.
"I SMELL... A MALE."
"A PERFECT... MALE."
The swarm began to move.
[Arc 3: The Galactic Sovereign - CONTINUES]
[Next: The Hive Mother's Proposal.]