Chapter 22: The Fortress, Section 9

Undoubtedly, even though the Vincent family was a noble house with a long history and extensive connections, Marshal Wick could never agree to their request.
A complete blockade? What a joke.
He still remembered how he had been attacked by the Blood Wolf forces last time just for trying to use force—just to establish a defensive line. Now they were asking him to impose a blockade? Wasn’t that clearly challenging Black Hair?
Marshal Wick might not know much about others, but he knew Black Hair’s tactics all too well. If he agreed to Marquis Vincent’s request now, it would be tantamount to declaring war on the Blood Wolf forces! The terrifying consequences would be beyond the bearing of just one or two people, nor would it be confined to a single star system.
Black Hair’s subordinates were nothing but true madmen… They wouldn’t care about the severe damage their actions might cause; they only sought to destroy their enemies. Even now, Marshal Wick still felt pain over the losses from last time.
But Vincent, as a council member, wasn’t easy to deal with either. Marshal Wick could only refuse using as polite language as possible. Though his words were courteous, one thing was clear: a blockade was absolutely out of the question!
“Very well, my marshal! It seems that having held this position for so long, you’ve forgotten who helped you in the beginning. I’m very disappointed. Since you refuse this request, I’ll have no choice but to take action myself. I only hope you won’t regret it when it’s time to divide the spoils.” Hearing Marshal Wick’s refusal, Vincent wasn’t angry. He still spoke with a smile.
What he didn’t know was that at that moment, Marshal Wick was also sneering inwardly.
Divide the spoils? What audacity. These mediocre nobles likely no longer had the vigor of the great exploration era. With their useless subordinates who only knew how to live off others, they weren’t even comparable to the reserve forces of an interstellar fleet. And yet they still wanted to conquer that pirate star system infamous for its madness?
Marshal Wick remained expressionless and made a gesture to invite him to leave, then ended the communication.
On the other hand, in a giant canyon on Death Star…
The massive warship lay quietly there. Countless robotic arms were busy working all over its body. Sparks from energy welds flew everywhere, with a constant “buzzing” sound.
Black Hair stood quietly beside it, silently observing the repair work on the giant warship, a hint of joy in his eyes.

It’s also his fault—recently he’s been focusing all his efforts on Thor’s Fortress. It wasn’t until returning to Death Star after such a long time that he began considering the repair of the Windblade. After the battle at the core of the Mysterious Galaxy, the Windblade not only lost almost all of its physical armor but also had its engines overworked for extended periods. The damage to the warship was enormous. And now, it was finally time to make amends for it.

Putting aside the Windblade’s capabilities, just the fact that it originally belonged to the Huaguo forces meant Black Hair could never take it lightly. So for this repair task, he gathered twelve fanatics from the Black Prison and also brought in several experts from Thor’s Fortress to work together. They were determined to restore the Windblade to its formidable state once again.

Of course, there were many difficulties involved.

The Windblade’s armor was among the most advanced ever developed on Earth. Although the term “composite armor” sounded somewhat outdated, its actual technological complexity far surpassed even the peak of today’s magic civilization—it was the result of countless years of advancement in mechanical civilization. Every inch of the armor contained components that had been refined through countless experiments to achieve the perfect balance, something that current technology simply couldn’t replicate.

Most importantly, many of the elements in the Windblade’s armor were unique to Earth. Without them, the armor’s strength would plummet, failing to meet Black Hair’s standards.

Almost everyone racked their brains over this issue but failed to make any significant breakthroughs. After more than a month, one day, with the help of Core, Black Hair solved this fundamental problem.

Biological armor!!

That’s right—biological armor!!

Compared to traditional physical armor, biological armor represented a completely new field. Although its strength per unit area might be lower than that of physical armor, its overall durability and resistance to unconventional attacks such as corrosion and toxins were extremely high. And most importantly, it possessed a unique ability throughout the entire universe—self-healing!!

Black Hair still remembered the fierce battle he faced against that white warship of the Wandering Ones for the first time. That alone proved just how powerful biological armor could be. In that battle, despite Black Hair and Blood Pupil having overwhelming firepower, destroying the enemy was extremely difficult. Apart from flame bombs, neither physical artillery nor energy weapons could inflict fatal damage. And in just a short while, the damaged ship would recover to its original state, giving Black Hair a huge headache.

But now, that headache had turned into ecstasy!!

Yes, with biological armor, Li Feng’s abilities wouldn’t diminish at all—they would even increase significantly. After all, biological armor is much lighter than physical armor. The benefits it brings go far beyond just enhanced defense.
The only problem is that biological armor is made of living tissue, not inanimate matter. Therefore, it requires a large amount of nutrients. Clearly, Li Feng’s energy system doesn’t meet the needs of biological armor.
“Radiant energy. We Rogues only like this kind of energy,” Kuai said to Hei Fa.
Of course, though radiant energy is rare, it already exists on Death Star, so there’s no issue in obtaining it. What Kuai worries about is that this energy has too strong penetrating and destructive power. With the current technology of the magic civilization, there simply don’t exist any facilities capable of containing or utilizing such energy!
Hearing this explanation, Hei Fa laughed.
A wild laugh!!
Indeed, radiant energy is a dangerous type of energy. But just because the magic civilization can’t handle it doesn’t mean Li Feng’s Earth civilization can’t! After all, on Earth in the past, nuclear weapons were always the trump card of all major powers. How could Li Feng’s world lack radiation protection facilities?
Even better, Li Feng’s energy core design actually includes a component for nuclear energy. By concentrating the radiant energy from Death Star and placing it there, it can be directly transmitted to every corner of the warship through specially designed pipelines!!
What you need when you want to sleep is right there—on the pillow. Hei Fa was extremely satisfied.
So, the remaining issue was repairing Li Feng’s engine.
In this regard, the madmen of Black Prison once again demonstrated their terrifying abilities.
Although they didn’t understand the principles of Li Feng’s engine, Black Prison’s designs were always characterized by a mix of mechanics and magic. So naturally, they were familiar with mechanical components. After half a month of research, they finally came up with a highly unique solution: the Subspace Micro-Transition Engine.
As the name suggests, this engine utilizes the latest subspace technology to integrate full-scale transitions, which require massive energy, into ordinary navigation. Once the engine reaches a certain critical level, a special energy circulation layer forms around the warship, bringing it into a state between transition and normal navigation. In this state, negative factors such as inertia and friction from cosmic particles are completely eliminated. The warship thus gains an unprecedentedly optimized navigation environment.

Undoubtedly, this engine is epoch-defining—a pinnacle of magic civilization technology. According to the Black Prison Gang’s estimates, even a giant warship like the Li Feng could reach the speed of the “Thunderbolt” assault ship—or even exceed it—after being equipped with this engine. More importantly, since an optimized sailing environment eliminates the effects of inertia, the Li Feng’s agility could even compare to that of a mosquito in nature, allowing it to move however it wished.

However, this engine has one drawback: once it enters an optimized sailing environment, the energy flow layer around the warship greatly interferes with the firing of normal weapons. For energy-based weapons, 50% of their effectiveness is blocked, while conventional weapons see a 30% reduction in accuracy. Moreover, due to its extreme precision, manufacturing this engine is incredibly complex and difficult. Apart from the Li Feng, no other warships can afford to use it. As for units of enormous size like the Thor Fortress, which require multiple engines working together, such a thing is simply out of the question.

In short, this engine was designed specifically for the Li Feng by the Black Prison Gang. Other warships are out of the picture!!

But that’s enough. For Black Hair, this modification is less of a repair for the Li Feng and more of a complete overhaul. After such a massive upgrade, the Li Feng’s overall combat strength will not only remain unchanged but actually increase by more than double. Its combat tactics will also shift from previous aggressive approaches to include new strategies like ambushes and surprise attacks—truly a huge surprise.

With this mindset, Black Hair couldn’t hide the smile on his face. He had spent almost every day at the Li Feng’s repair site over the past month.

Until, the hurried footsteps of Blood Pupil echoed behind him…

“What’s the matter, Blood Pupil? Why in such a rush? Do you also want a mech from me? No problem—go talk to them yourself. Just state what type you want.” In a good mood, Black Hair kept smiling as he looked at Blood Pupil rushing over, not forgetting to tease him a bit.

But the next moment, his smile froze on his face.

“Boss, something’s happened!! Lily… Lily ran away!!!”