Chapter 26: Civil Unrest, Section 9

Blood dropped onto the blood-red crystal and was instantly absorbed as if water met a sponge. At the same time, Hei Fa felt his heart pound violently, as if something heavy were pressing down on it, filling him with dread.
Was this the effect of the Death Contract? How could it be so miraculous?
Miss Wei Li, who was across from him, smiled even wider upon seeing his reaction. After Hei Fa finished, she gently cut her little finger with a small silver knife and dropped a drop of blood onto the crystal.
Hei Fa noticed that her blood was different from his—deep blue, like seawater. When it touched the crystal, it didn’t absorb immediately but circled around first before penetrating to the very center. Meanwhile, he heard Wei Li murmuring words, seemingly praying to something.
The ritual was completed quickly. Almost the moment the blue drop entered the crystal, a faint but definite red light flashed at its core. Soon after, the entire crystal lost its clarity and turned into something resembling stone—blood-red in color, with complex and eerie patterns emerging on its surface.
The Death Contract was complete.
Staring at the crystal infused with Hei Fa and Wei Li’s blood, Xue Tong was stunned.
Like Hei Fa, who had never believed in mysteries, he too felt something inside him crack after witnessing this, causing him to waver. This state persisted until the two left and returned to the car. On the way back to the inn, Xue Tong finally couldn’t hold back and spoke up.
“Boss, that thing… Are you sure it doesn’t bind you?”
“The Death Contract?” Hei Fa was deep in thought. Hearing Xue Tong speak, he was startled and showed a hint of confusion. He shook his head. “I don’t know either. But my heart feels a bit abnormal right now—though not very noticeably.”
“So it really works?” Xue Tong became anxious immediately. “Does that mean your life is now in her hands? Will you truly become her subordinate?”
Seeing Xue Tong’s urgent questions, Hei Fa laughed. “How could that be? My fate is in my own hands, not in anyone else’s. When have you ever seen me bound by such crude tactics? Not to mention now, when we’re still using each other—by the time we manage to get free, I’ll see if this Death Contract is truly as miraculous as the legends say!”
His voice was low, yet it carried an air of unshakable confidence that left Xue Tong stunned before he started laughing.

“That’s right. With your personality, I’m afraid that woman will end up suffering. Head, what should we do now? Take her fleet?”
“Hmm. Rest for a few days. Have Hong gather some intelligence for us. You and I will take care of the fleet. We’ll set off in a week. Capturing Lord Locke this time is key to gaining access to the higher ranks of the Moors—we can’t afford to fail.” Black Hair pondered for a moment before making up his mind.
The days of rest were actually time for Black Hair and the others to go shopping. It’s funny to think that such activities, usually favored by women, made these tough guys equally enthusiastic. But instead of jewelry or clothes, they browsed the vast and fascinating resource market of this space station.
After all, Black Hair was still an armed merchant, and it would be unacceptable not to make some deals. Taking this opportunity to gain firsthand insight into the Moor Empire, he naturally went all out. During his browsing, he indeed discovered some issues.
It turned out that the civilization of the Moor Empire had its own unique system, with mineral resources vastly different from those of humans. Their main minerals were neither metals nor gems, nor energy crystals, but rather various types of stones and peculiar crystals.
Stones were the primary materials used by the Moors to build warships and structures. Just like Black Hair’s previous experience with Earth’s mechanical civilization and today’s human society’s magic civilization, their civilization could be considered a stone-based one. However, unlike primitive stone tools from ancient times, their stones were extremely advanced.
Ultimately, it was all due to the existence of Stone Essence.
As the name suggests, Stone Essence was the essence of all stones. The Moors had a unique method to extract it. Depending on the type of stone and the extraction technique, the resulting Stone Essence came in many forms—some could absorb wave frequencies, some were incredibly hard, while others had high energy conductivity. Almost all the special materials Black Hair had seen could be replaced by Stone Essence here. Even the ultra-vibration coating on the ramheads of storm assault ships could be achieved using Stone Essence.
After a brief tour, Black Hair had to admit that the Moors could indeed become the undisputed rulers of the universe. This stone-based civilization truly had its unique strengths.
Of course, there were also crystals.

Crystal is another essential item in Moor society, with daily demand comparable to that of energy for humans. It is also the favorite commodity for traders from Moor’s allied tribes, thanks to the various methods available for mining and acquisition. Here, crystals are practically abundant. Many varieties that are expensive in human society can be found everywhere here like trash. For example, the amethyst ore that Hei Fa had seen before is now quite common here, available at every stall.

Seeing this, Hei Fa and Xue Tong both felt lucky. Fortunately, the goods they brought this time were rare ore varieties, not finished crystal products; otherwise, they might have had nothing valuable to exchange. But now, the situation was different.

Due to cultural differences, various energy ores carried on the Li Feng were extremely valuable here. Just by taking out a small portion of them, Hei Fa reaped huge profits that would make any merchant happy. There were enough crystals to fill a giant transport ship unique to the Moors, which in turn allowed Hei Fa to exchange them for the local currency—Mocha.

According to the exchange rate, 1 Mocha equals 2.35 crystal coins. Considering the difference in goods, with just one transaction, Hei Fa made a profit of nearly 130 times the original cost. Such profits were astonishing. For a moment, all the pirates realized they had become millionaires.

“Maybe we shouldn’t be pirates. Being transport merchants might be more promising,” Xue Tong murmured, staring blankly at a small green stone in Hei Fa’s hand.

“…I think so too,” Hei Fa replied. “But probably, among humans now, only we can enjoy such treatment. If Keko were here, he’d probably just become someone else’s prey.”

“If Keko knew about such profits, would he still do it even if he became prey?” Xue Tong asked doubtfully.

“By the God of Chaos,” both shuddered at the thought of Keko’s gleaming eyes.

After browsing the market, they didn’t overlook weapons either. The Moors once again surprised Hei Fa and the others with their arsenal—entirely made up of energy weapons.

From delicate pistols to the main guns of warships, the Moors have an almost pathological obsession with energy weapons. There’s everything—from lasers and energy pulses that Black Hair has seen before to the high-intensity multi-spectrum hybrid systems available now. Many weapons are even beyond Black Hair’s experience, with unimaginable power. He once saw a multi-point composite array magic cannon; the merchant claimed it could destroy half a planet with a single shot!
“That’s absolutely exaggerated,” was Blood Eye’s assessment.
“No wonder they can conquer so many races. With such armaments, it’s indeed possible,” Black Hair had to admit the Moors’ strength.
Just what they had seen already far exceeded the firepower of ordinary warships in the human world, and this was said to be only at the civilian level. There were also weapons officially equipped by the military, which were incomparably more powerful and durable.
The advanced versions of energy weapons were the foundation of the Moors’ dominance in the universe. Unlike ordinary weapons, energy weapons had diverse uses—capable of attacking, defending, and creating temporary barriers. Compared to humanity’s magic civilization, the Moors were truly the masters of energy weapons—on a completely different level.
Stone warships possessed extraordinary defensive capabilities not found in ordinary metal warships, combined with such powerful energy weapon systems. Just from this combination, it was clear how formidable the Moors’ stone civilization was. For the first time, Black Hair began to worry whether humanity could withstand such enemies.
Fortunately, the information he received from Miss Wei Li also included plans regarding the human world. Due to Lord Locke’s betrayal, this space station temporarily lost its ability to launch expeditions, leaving its forces critically strained. Thus, the conquest of humanity would be delayed until reinforcements arrived from other space stations or after Lord Locke’s issue was resolved.
Black Hair knew that by then, what would appear in the human starfields wouldn’t be just a few Moor giant ships—it would be an overwhelming fleet and countless swarm-like mech battle groups. The Moors’ massive war machine could easily destroy entire human civilizations as effortlessly as crushing an ant.
It would be a disaster. And the 31 Star Systems within that disaster zone would face certain doom.
“We must stir chaos among the Moors from within,” Black Hair murmured.
“What?” Blood Eye was stunned, seemingly not hearing Black Hair clearly.

“But before that, I must first gain leadership over the Moors.” The black-haired man did not answer Blood-eyed’s question and headed straight for the airport. “Let’s start with capturing Lord Locke this time…”