Chapter 32: Black Holes, Section 10

Flames licked at the twisted metal. Broken parts were scattered everywhere. The entire landing plaza was in chaos. Countless members of the Han clan were busy working nonstop.

By this time, Hei Fa had already arrived at Jie’s living room.
It was a very luxurious room. As the leader of a planet, Jie clearly possessed wealth commensurate with his status. Almost the entire room was decorated with an exceptionally bright metal that reflected colorful lights under the illumination. Above the room hung seven huge chandeliers, their long chains glowing brilliantly like crystal.

There, the two exchanged brief greetings before Jie finally explained what had happened earlier.
It turned out that this race, which Hei Fa considered to be quite strong, was not entirely harmonious. Although the Han clan only had one planet, there were dozens of complex factions on it.

Just as Hei Fa had seen when he first arrived, the Han clan was a highly warlike race. If one examined their history, it would be almost equivalent to a history of war. Over the five thousand years of recorded civilization, warfare and slaughter had constituted the most important aspects of their lives. It was for this reason that Jie, as seen by Hei Fa, was completely different from ordinary leaders. He was strong, warlike, brave, and fearless. In a sense, he resembled a pure warrior. Yet, it was this strong man who led the most powerful group within the Han clan, controlling 80% of the planet’s land and 60% of its oceans, as well as all the warships.

Of course, overwhelming military strength did not mean there was no resistance. Moreover, aside from Jie, there were dozens of other factions of varying sizes within the Han clan. Although Jie had taken control of all the warships, these factions found other means to resist. That was what Hei Fa had seen today. According to Jie’s description, they were called Steel Giants.

From Black Hair’s understanding, the so-called Steel Giants were a very primitive type of mecha. They lacked the advantages of high speed, powerful firepower, and high adaptability that modern mechas possess. However, they did have extremely strong power sources. With iron bodies reaching up to fifteen meters tall, along with heavy internal components, they were almost equivalent to solid iron blocks of the same size. The fact that such heavy machines could be powered showed just how formidable their energy systems were. In fact, when Black Hair pushed those two Steel Giants down, he also felt that the Killing Emperor’s wrist was operating beyond its capacity. But it was only for a moment, and he didn’t pay much attention to it. Looking back now, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe.

After all, the Killing Emperor was the pinnacle of Death Star’s technology. Especially after being enhanced with nuclear-powered cells, its combat strength had increased by far more than five times. Even such a powerful mecha experienced overload during a power struggle—so just how strong could these iron giants be?

Black Hair didn’t know, but now that he thought about it, he suddenly became interested in these seemingly primitive iron giants.

Unfortunately, the Steel Giants were only in the hands of those who opposed Jie. The three that appeared earlier had been torn to pieces by Black Hair. So even if he wanted to learn more about them, he couldn’t. Moreover, he had an even more important matter to deal with right now.

“Leader Jie. I’m glad to be received by you. But to be honest, something bad is happening in my hometown. I need to return there as soon as possible. When can you fulfill the coordinates you promised me?” In the hall, Black Hair gently tapped the armrest of his seat before suddenly speaking up.

Perhaps because the Han people were all extremely large in stature, their daily items were also huge. As a result, Black Hair felt like a child sitting in the reclining chair. But this didn’t affect Jie’s opinion of his guest. After the sudden change that had just occurred, he had gained a new understanding of Black Hair.

This was a very difficult opponent. The fact that he didn’t hesitate to use force in the face of threats proved that this short creature was extremely sensitive. Communicating with him required utmost caution. This was a rare opportunity, and Jie wasn’t planning to let it slip away.

With a hearty laugh, one of Jie’s heads continued to watch Black Hair, while the other turned to face his subordinates. “Go. Bring over the coordinate map we just surveyed.”

“Yes, great leader,” replied one of the heavily armored guards quickly before rushing out.

Soon, something that resembled paper was placed in front of Black Hair. He glanced at it briefly and saw thousands of dots marked densely with strange symbols—presumably representing the stars in the vicinity.
Very primitive, truly primitive.
Black Hair couldn’t understand why, in a place where tens of thousands of warships could be produced, such a precise task as mapping the stars had to be done on paper. For someone accustomed to star charts, this document was like unreadable gibberish—let alone identifying his own coordinates; it was unlikely he could even grasp an overview of any star region.
“This… is a star chart?” After hesitating for a moment, Black Hair spoke up.
“A star chart? I’m sorry, esteemed guest. I don’t know what that is. But this is our cosmic environment map—compiled through the efforts of countless ancestors. It’s also the most precious asset of our Han clan. On this map are the coordinates of all nearby planets. Of course, I’m not sure if it will be of any help to you,” Jie replied loudly with a hearty laugh, a hint of pride in his eyes.
Expanding territory was undoubtedly the proudest achievement for a leader. Though he wasn’t talented enough to resolve the energy shortages on the entire planet, he had succeeded in refining this cosmic environment map, painstakingly developed by his ancestors. Given more time, he believed he could find a new planet suitable for his people to live on. By then, he would likely become the greatest leader in Han clan history.
Yet he didn’t realize how vast the universe was—far beyond his imagination. Although there were many planets, only a tiny fraction were habitable. With humanity’s frenzied expansion, most newly discovered celestial bodies could only be used as mining sites; less than one or two percent were actually habitable. For a civilization like the Han clan, it would be even harder. After all, advanced technologies like transforming natural environments were only mastered by civilizations at humanity’s level.
But none of this concerned Black Hair. He had no interest in continuing his research. Instead, he simply summoned the black prison engineer and thrust the unreadable document at him.
“I’m giving you two hours. I want results.”
“Understood, boss,” the engineer replied firmly, pushing his glasses up his nose.
He silently picked up the map and left the room. Black Hair knew a satisfactory answer would come soon. But in the meantime, it was his turn to pay the price.

In any world, there is nothing that comes without effort. To obtain something, one must pay a price. Hei Fa was well aware that from the moment he accepted the sacred book given by Jie, a deal had been made between them. Now, it was up to him to decide what price to demand.

“That’s good. It gives us a chance to see just how greedy the other party is,” Hei Fa thought silently, tapping the armrest of his chair.

Sure enough, as soon as the engineer left the room, Jie spoke again.

“Leader Hei Fa. Actually, from the first moment I saw you, I knew of your strength. I never imagined there could be flying objects as huge as planets in this world. And the owner of such a magnificent flying object—your honor—must surely be the leader of some race as well. I wonder if I might have the honor of forming an alliance with your race?”

There it is, Hei Fa thought with a smile. “I’m pleased to hear such praise from you, Jie. But unfortunately, I’m not the leader of any race. Although I do have a small family business, if I were to compare it, it’s roughly equivalent to those rebel groups on your planet. It’s truly insignificant.”

“Ah!?” Jie’s four eyes widened dramatically, both of his faces showing shock. How astonishing!

“A leader as powerful as you controls only a small organization? Then your race must be incredibly strong. Good heavens, I really can’t imagine it.”

“Oh, it’s just a small race. They control about thirty star regions. Well, a star region is an area of the starry sky. One star region is probably three times larger than the entire map of your surroundings. I am the lord of thirty-one star regions,” Hei Fa replied politely with a smile.

But Jie on the other side was visibly upset. After hearing Hei Fa’s description of star regions, he was completely stunned.

It was unimaginable. He had gone through so much trouble to gain control of a planet and had felt quite proud of it. But compared to this tiny creature before him, it was nothing at all. This person controlled star regions. Star regions! Do you know what that means? It’s a very, very large place.

As he tried to imagine the scale of a star region, Jie suddenly found his mind in chaos, unable even to form a proper description.

But it was also his underestimation of himself; how could he possibly know that was a lie deliberately told by Hei Fa? The human forces had a considerable reach, but that was only because they had had smooth success. Unlike the Han tribe, which was constantly at war, despite having a vast starry sky, their strongest interstellar fleet consisted of only a few thousand warships, which couldn’t compare at all to the ten thousand ships that Jie already possessed. If Jie were to enter human society, who knows how much of a sensation it would cause?
Of course, Hei Fa wouldn’t mention any of this. He simply smiled as he watched Jie daydreaming, then threw in a remark at the right moment.
“Actually, it’s quite simple to create some living space. Maybe you need a little help?”