Chapter 52: The Spiral of Death, Section 8

“That’s right, the secrets of the Grand Duke of Tarot.” As Black Hair said this, his eyes shone with confidence.
After all, this was the result of his hard work.
Before forcibly stealing the Grand Duke of Tarot’s memories, he never expected such serious consequences. He simply saw that Ya Zi had this ability and decided to use it since he needed it at the time. Of course, he later paid a price for it.
As mentioned earlier, stealing the memories was simple, but processing them was extremely difficult. The mental pressure from as many as fifteen magic mechs was beyond even a resilient warrior like Black Hair’s capacity to bear. That’s why he suffered so much at first. Several times, as the Monkey sent Black Hair to the virtual puppet, he nearly gave up. Fortunately, he managed to hold on in the end. Under such intense mental pressure, Black Hair came up with a new idea: receive the information in batches.
He couldn’t withstand such high mental pressure all at once, but he could process it in stages. It was then that Black Hair realized Ya Zi already had this function—he just hadn’t noticed it before.
Thinking about it, Black Hair couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. It was utterly ridiculous. As the master of Ya Zi, he didn’t even know about the abilities inherent in Ya Zi itself and had relied solely on his physical strength. Thankfully, his mental resilience was quite good. Otherwise, dying would have been utterly unjust.
Of course, after going through such peril, Black Hair finally obtained what he wanted: the true secrets of the Grand Duke of Tarot—a virtual corridor spanning the entire Moor Empire!!
What is a virtual corridor? That’s somewhat difficult to understand. At least with Black Hair’s current understanding, he couldn’t grasp its principle. But one thing was certain: once he mastered this corridor, he could appear anywhere within the Moor Empire’s territory at any time!!
What a terrifying prospect.
The Moor Empire was the greatest hegemon in the universe. If there was anything truly astonishing about it, aside from its military power, it was undoubtedly its vast territories. Even the lowest-ranking noble, a baron, could have his own star system. This was unimaginable in human society. All of this was the result of the Moor Empire’s years of conquests.

However, with such a vast territory, negative consequences followed—namely, the intractable transportation problems. Just like in those primitive countries on Earth, traveling from one end of the country to the other required wasting a great deal of time on the journey. The Moor Empire was even worse; even with the most advanced anti-space transit technology, it would take at least a year, or even two years, to travel across the entire empire.
Two years… Come on. With such a long time, if anything were to happen, by then everything would be too late. Thus, transportation became a huge bottleneck hindering the development of the Moor Empire.
Hei Ba also used to think so. But ever since he obtained the memories of Grand Duke Taro yesterday, all the secrets were revealed.
The virtual corridor—this was the lifeblood of the Moor Empire. No wonder Grand Duke Taro was so confident, even to the point of disregarding the Moor Emperor.
Though called a corridor, it was actually something akin to a network structure. Hei Ba didn’t know how it was constructed, nor what materials or technologies were used. Yet this corridor covered the entire Moor Empire. As long as one found any port on the corridor and passed the authentication password, the user could be transported to anywhere they wanted.
A miracle!!
Hei Ba clearly remembered his reaction upon learning this secret. At that moment, only that word came to his mind; everything else disappeared.
This was definitely not a technology that should exist in the universe today—neither could he, Hei Ba, nor the Death Star, let alone the Moor Empire. Such a thing was far beyond the scope of ordinary technology. Hei Ba could only describe it with that word: This was something only a god could create!!
Yet now, this thing was in his hands. It had to be said that this was sheer luck.
“My goodness…” After hearing Hei Ba’s description, Monkey was completely stunned. With his understanding, he simply couldn’t accept what Hei Ba had described. His mind seemed to freeze, and he stood there utterly dumbfounded. But this didn’t stop his ecstasy. In just a moment, he rushed up to Hei Ba and shouted in a frantic voice,
“That thing… it’s ours now!! Head, we’re in big trouble!!!”
“You’re celebrating too early,” Hei Ba replied with a bitter smile, shrugging his shoulders in the face of Monkey’s excitement.

“Knowing that such things exist is one thing. Truly mastering them is another. Before that, we must attempt a long-distance jump. Use this corridor.”
“What are we waiting for! Let’s set off right away!” the monkey shouted anxiously.
“Wait until Blood Pupil and Baroka return. You won’t forget them, will you?” The black-haired man smiled bitterly. Then he tapped the monkey’s head. “And before that, we need to get a coordinate. Tarot’s secrets are useful, but he didn’t give us what we need most.”
“The location of the Kuro Star Region remains a mystery.”
“Uh!” As if doused in cold water, the monkey immediately calmed down. He suddenly realized this was indeed a problem. Without the coordinates of the Kuro Star Region, even if they mastered this corridor crucial to the Moor Empire, they couldn’t achieve their goal. After all, they weren’t Moors, and this corridor wasn’t as vital to them as it was to the Moor Empire.
Just then, Blood Pupil and Baroka also entered the warship.
Just like when the monkey first entered the warship, the two of them looked rather disheveled, arousing curiosity among the staff who brought them in. They kept asking questions. But the two seemed to have reached some unspoken agreement and refused to speak. Surrounded by many warriors, they soon arrived in front of the black-haired man.
“Done?” With just a glance at them, the black-haired man asked with a smile. He could also tell that the two must have suffered significant losses. After all, Baroka’s expression couldn’t hide his feelings.
“Yeah, done,” Blood Pupil replied cheerfully, though a hint of embarrassment flashed across his face.
But at this moment, the black-haired man didn’t want to press further. With his keen intuition, he could tell that Blood Pupil must have made the same mistake as him. Likely, they had used abilities they didn’t fully understand, which led to their predicament. So immediately, he revealed the secret to these two close comrades. Their reactions were similar to the monkey’s—both were extremely surprised, their mouths wide enough to hold two eggs.
“Alright. There’s no need to be so nervous. After all, the world is full of wonders. There are still many things we haven’t seen. The existence of virtual corridors is a reminder not to be arrogant. Now, let’s go see this miracle,” the black-haired man said calmly, then gave the order to activate the fleet.

In the starry sky, the massive fleet immediately began to move slowly, accelerating faster and faster. In just a moment, it had approached the speed of light. The hulls of the ships quickly blurred, losing their distinct shape as warships. In Li Feng’s cabin, urgent reports also sounded at the same time.
“Captain, the fleet’s acceleration rate is 93.78%, nearing the critical value. Shall we proceed with the jump?”
“No,” replied the black-haired man calmly. By now, he had returned to his captain’s seat. Staring at the large screen displaying rapidly changing data, he placed his hand on his forehead as the memories of Grand Duke Tarot flashed through his mind like a movie. In just a short while, his complexion turned pale—sign of extreme mental strain.
“Continue as before. This isn’t a jump; it’s an experiment. Aim to get as close to the critical value as possible. I need some time to connect to the virtual corridor. Activate the adjustment system—I’ll operate it personally this time.”
“Understood!” The navigator replied respectfully before stepping aside. At the same time, the black-haired man’s fingers touched the control keyboard on the armrest of his seat. Images flashed rapidly in his mind, and in the blink of an eye, he entered a series of commands.
Meanwhile, all the crew members on the bridge witnessed the most unforgettable scene of their lives. On the large screen, the graph representing the fleet’s trajectory suddenly changed—twisting into a tunnel-like shape, with numerous polygons seemingly losing control in an instant. Everyone also felt tremors beneath their feet.
“Could this… be a failure?” Blood-Eyed, who was nearby, grew worried. After all, this involved controlling an entire fleet, with its original trajectory managed by the optical brain to ensure precision. But now the black-haired man was switching to manual control—what if it failed?
Blood-Eyed’s mind conjured images of warships crashing into each other.
But the next moment, all worries vanished. The black-haired man typed even faster on the keyboard. Just as he reached a peak, the warships suddenly shook violently. Almost everyone heard a thunderous sound. Before they could react, Li Feng had entered a strange space—a mysterious passage made up of countless colorful halos…