Chapter 28: A Bloodshed Triggered by a Stone – Section 7

Setting aside excessive philosophical speculation for now, the black-haired traveler must continue on his journey. In this mysterious and vast starry expanse, what appeared to be a massive fleet was nothing more than a school of fish, navigating among countless even larger celestial bodies. Five hours of normal sailing passed in an instant. After forcing their way through six more celestial bodies, they finally reached their destination.
A mysterious and haunting vortex.
To Black Hair and the others, this vortex was undoubtedly beautiful. It was composed of some indescribable gas, appearing blue in color, covering an area of perhaps millions of square kilometers. In the pitch-black universe, it rotated slowly yet steadily, emitting a faint blue glow thanks to the reflection of surrounding stars. It was as beautiful as a sapphire from a dream.
“Is this… the planet shown on the star map?” Blood-Pupil stared at the scene in front of him, his expression numb.
Since arriving in this region, he had seen and experienced far too many anomalies—far more than in all his previous lives. Now, even if Black Hair pointed at a cockroach and said, “Look, this is Blood-Pupil,” he wouldn’t question it.
But a planet and a gas vortex… could they be the same thing?
Blood-Pupil didn’t know. After all, this exceeded his understanding. The only explanation he could think of was what Black Hair had mentioned earlier… a mirage.
“This is also an illusion, right? Boss, if Miss Wei Li’s star map is correct, this should be a planet—one inhabited by Rock People.” Shaking his head, trying to clear his chaotic thoughts, Blood-Pupil said uncertainly.
“Hmm, the coordinates are correct,” Black Hair replied indifferently, glancing at the star map. “Then let the vanguard approach.”
“Wait, boss! This is too risky. Why not scan it first?!” Seeing Black Hair about to act, Blood-Pupil hurriedly interjected. Though he still doubted what he saw, the ship’s scanning system had been tested countless times and was generally reliable.
But Black Hair didn’t agree. He gave Blood-Pupil a strange look and shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s useless. The scanning system also emits a frequency, which will be affected in a mirage. Here, the only thing we can trust is our intuition. Everything else…”
Black Hair chuckled in a peculiarly eerie way. “Not even our own eyes.”

It turned out that Blackhair’s actions were correct. As soon as their flagship, a massive Moor giant ship, approached the vortex, ripples resembling water waves appeared at its center and quickly spread throughout the entire vortex. After the ripples subsided, the enormous, sapphire-like beautiful vortex had vanished without a trace, replaced by a desolate planet.

It was called desolate because even when observed with the naked eye from space, the planet was nothing but endless gray. The mountains and the dust on the ground were so thick that they could likely cover a person’s height. Scans showed that the surface temperature of the planet was over seventy degrees below zero—completely unsuitable for life. If such a planet wasn’t considered desolate, then there was no justice in the universe.

The Moor giant ship landed at the top of a mountain range on this planet. Compared to the dusty plains here, perhaps only the mountains could be considered relatively solid. It wasn’t easy for such a huge and bulky ship to find a suitable landing site. Of course, behind it was also Blackhair’s fleet.

While the landing problem was solved, the task ahead posed a challenge for Bloodpupil: searching. Their purpose for coming here was to conquer the race known as the Rockborn. Yet those people never showed themselves—first, there were false illusions, and now this desolate planet. It was clear they had no intention of engaging Blackhair’s fleet head-on. But this was precisely what troubled Blackhair the most.

The illusory scanning systems could deceive them, leaving their only method of finding the enemy to be manual search. But with such a vast starfield filled with desolate planets, how many could there be? If the Rockborn truly intended to hide and not emerge, Blackhair would be at a loss for now.

Not only Blackhair but probably any commander would be helpless against such primitive yet highly effective tactics used by the Rockborn. Weren’t such deep-strategy deployments also considered unsolvable on Earth in the past?

Thus, both Blackhair and Bloodpupil were helpless and could only resort to equally primitive methods: manual inspection.

Wave after wave of reconnaissance drones began to be released from the Moorish giant ships. Each wave numbered in the hundreds. These drones were like wasps pouring out of a beehive, densely gathering around the landing site before spreading out in all directions. Powered by their high-speed engines, they moved at lightning speed, kicking up dust clouds resembling dragons with every pass over the surface. Amidst the deafening roar, the Black-Haired Fleet’s search finally began.

At that moment, Black-Haired and Blood-Eyed put on protective suits and piloted a landing craft, leaving the warship alone before quickly disappearing on this desolate planet. The pretext? To relax.

Undoubtedly, the search would take a long time. And even if they found something, further verification would be needed—work that was undoubtedly tedious. Yet Blood-Eyed was someone who couldn’t sit still.

During interstellar travel, he couldn’t leave the warship, but now that they had landed, staying put would be unbecoming of him. So, at his insistence, Black-Haired reluctantly agreed to take him along with dozens of other restless Blood Wolf pirates on an alternative search.

Of course, as commanders of a warship, they weren’t reckless. They brought all their elite mechs on this small landing craft. Compared to the advanced energy weapons of the Moorish Empire, they trusted their own armament more.

What Black-Haired and Blood-Eyed didn’t know was that sometimes, what seems like a casual outing can easily turn into an accident—especially when they’re the ones in the spotlight.

That accident happened two hours later.

By then, they had just crossed a canyon and were already quite far from the landing site. They had gained some understanding of the planet’s desolation. Through the landing craft’s windows, they could see little but grayness. The dust on the surface was lifted by the craft’s engine exhaust, forming long plumes of smoke. The peaks on either side of the canyon rushed past. Suddenly, everything brightened—as they had emerged.

Before them lay a vast basin.

It was a place surrounded by mountains, with peaks soaring into the clouds like sharp swords. From above, it must have been very prominent. Strangely, however, the reconnaissance drones that had passed by hadn’t reported anything about it. The fleets above continued to fly past in waves, seemingly oblivious to the basin below.

Mirage!?
Black Hair and Blood Eyes thought of this term first, their faces instantly changing color.
They had come out to relax, not to fight. The route they chose was also within the coverage of the reconnaissance drones. But it was clear now that they couldn’t rely on those drones anymore. If the Mirage could conceal this basin right under their noses, it surely could also hide their landing craft. And on this desolate target planet, concealing just one basin meant there must be something wrong with this Mirage.
Undoubtedly, this basin must hold some special significance. Perhaps it was a base of the Rockmen?
Inside the landing craft, Black Hair and Blood Eyes exchanged glances, both seeing the surprise in each other’s eyes. They never expected that an anomaly undetected by so many reconnaissance drones could be discovered so easily by them. But the question was: was it too late to send out a message now?
Since they had already entered the Mirage’s range, neither Blood Eyes nor Black Hair was sure if the message could actually be sent.
So, should they go in or not?
“Captain, after checking, our messages can’t be sent. The instruments seem to have lost their function here.” Just as Black Hair and Blood Eyes hesitated, a Blood Wolf pirate suddenly spoke up behind Black Hair.
As expected, the Mirage had concealed everything here. Blood Eyes immediately saw the cold glint in Black Hair’s eyes and nodded in understanding. Things were now clear—unless they turned back immediately, they had no choice but to enter this mysterious basin. But if they went back the way they came, no one would be able to find this place hidden by the Mirage again. They had no other option.
“Be careful. Let’s go take a look.” Black Hair finally made up his mind. Then, the small landing ship silently glided into this mysterious place like a fish.
As the saying goes, great skill brings boldness. Although Black Hair and the others felt wary of this strange basin, none of them showed fear. Not to mention Blood Eyes, a killer who fought for his life, even the Blood Wolf pirates behind them showed excitement. Their adventurous nature as pirates was fully displayed. Unnoticed, the elite mechs behind them were all ready.
The landing craft moved silently, quickly leaving the canyon entrance. As soon as they entered the basin, the scene before them changed instantly. As if out of nowhere, a huge city ruin suddenly appeared in the center of the basin…
“This is… a dead city?” Blood Eyes was stunned.