Chapter 52: The Spiral of Death, Section 9

“It’s truly amazing,” everyone exclaimed, staring at the dreamlike halos outside the window.
What a magnificent sight! Outside the warship, such brightly colored halos could be seen everywhere—red, green, yellow, white—almost every color present. These halos layered upon each other, forming a vast corridor that was breathtaking. In such an environment, the warship moved smoothly, without any sense of turbulence, as if they had entered anti-space.
No, wait… anti-space!?
It was only then that everyone realized they hadn’t entered hibernation during this jump!
What was going on?
Instantly, all eyes turned to Black Hair, waiting for his explanation.
“No need to stare at me like that. I don’t know why we didn’t enter hibernation either. But since this is a special environment, there must be a special reason. I think not entering hibernation is probably the most remarkable feature of this corridor—and it’s also the origin of its name,” Black Hair replied with a wry smile under their gazes.
“The origin of its name?” Monkey beside him was puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“A virtual corridor—I mean ‘virtual’ by that. If I’m not mistaken, this place doesn’t belong to the category of anti-space. It’s only somewhat similar. That’s why I used ‘virtual’ to describe it,” Black Hair replied seriously after thinking for a moment.
“It’s not anti-space? Then how can it increase speed?”
“Only the devil knows,” Black Hair said with a chuckle, shrugging before lowering his head again and starting to type away.
Silence gradually returned to the cabin. Most people returned to their posts to continue working, but many still stopped what they were doing to gaze out the window in awe.
Black Hair couldn’t really blame them. After all, this place was similar to anti-space. Since humans could make jumps, no one had ever seen what anti-space actually looked like. In the past, to escape the peculiar energy fluctuations and strange time effects of anti-space, people had to hide in cold hibernation pods, enduring that time like zombies. It could be said that anti-space held no pleasant memories for humans.
But now, with this chance to see it with their own eyes, how could they give it up? No wonder they even abandoned their work.

But for Black Hair, such scenes were already commonplace. After all, he was the only human among the Blood Wolves who could move freely in the reverse space, and reverse space no longer held any novelty for him at all.
In silence, time passed slowly. Yet Black Hair’s tapping never stopped. It wasn’t until Monkey and the others grew bored that they approached him. Watching him work faster and faster, they couldn’t help but feel curious.
“Boss, what are you doing? I don’t understand.”
“Nothing much,” Black Hair said, stopping his work and smiling at Monkey. “I need some time to adjust the interface of this virtual corridor. This is our first time entering here, and there’s a lot of data that needs to be processed right away. And only I can do it personally.”
“Because of the Grand Duke Tarot’s memories?”
“Mm,” Black Hair nodded and continued tapping. “This virtual corridor is huge. We’ve just entered. In about fifteen minutes, we’ll reach a place that resembles a rest area. It’s a node. If I can sort out the data by then, we can choose a suitable direction.”
“Really? Can you find the coordinates of the Kuuro Star Region?” Monkey was stunned before asking eagerly.
“Oh, that’s not possible yet. But I can find some other coordinates. The Grand Duke Tarot had many memories, and I’ve only absorbed part of them related to the virtual corridor. There’s still a lot left unabsorbed. Even so, I know a few sensitive locations. In his memories, several places are strictly sealed off. I’ve managed to unlock one of them,” Black Hair replied without looking up.
“What kind of place is it?” Monkey became immediately interested. It was clear he was very curious about someone like the Grand Duke Tarot. It was hard to imagine how he had survived under the Emperor Moore’s strict pressure for so long. After all, in any place, an emperor’s secrets are the most dangerous—few who know them survive. After all, for living people, the dead are better suited to keep secrets.
“Mm, not yet certain,” Black Hair replied calmly despite Monkey’s hopeful questions. He continued tapping quickly while answering softly. After thinking for a moment, he added,
“But I’ve figured out some clues. I still need to adjust. Well, from the information I’ve got so far, it seems to be a resource site. But not a mining planet. A very strange place.”

“A resource point? Isn’t it just a mining planet?” Hearing Black Hair’s explanation, Monkey was immediately puzzled. Based on his understanding, he couldn’t imagine what kind of place this could be. Fortunately, he didn’t need to worry about it. After five minutes of continuous input, Black Hair finally stopped what he was doing.

“It’s almost done. The results are in. That place isn’t far from us. Through the virtual corridor, it’s only a two-hour journey. But converted to normal distance, it’s already deep inside the Moor Empire. So once we start accelerating, the entire ship must be prepared for battle. I don’t want to get surrounded by enemies before even leaving transit.”

“Understood, boss,” Monkey replied cheerfully before quickly issuing a series of commands.

In the dreamlike passage, Black Hair’s Snake Tooth Fleet activated their rear engine nozzles simultaneously and began accelerating once again. As they moved, the halos around them flickered alternately, like neon lights. At the same time, all the crew members felt a strong push against them. Before they could react, the speed gauge of the Li Feng suddenly spiked to the max!!

“Oh, God. What’s going on!?” one crew member shouted in panic, his body thrown backward against the seat, his buttocks pressed firmly into it. The sudden push from the Li Feng was extremely intense, as if an invisible giant hand was pressing him tightly against the seat. And it wasn’t just him—almost all the crew members were in the same situation. Many even turned red from the pressure in an instant.

“Boss!! What’s happening?” Monkey’s situation wasn’t much better. Despite having far greater physical strength than ordinary crew members, he couldn’t escape being trapped. From Black Hair’s perspective, he could even see his distorted face.

But at this moment, Black Hair was powerless too. He had already realized that this was actually the capability of the virtual corridor itself—a powerful effect similar to electromagnetic acceleration, only with an even more terrifying and absolute force. No wonder the Moor Empire could use it to replace hyperspace transportation. Just this speed was likely far beyond the limits of ordinary ships.

In short, the entire corridor was like a cannon barrel, and they themselves were the shells!!

So, despite being extremely distressed, Black Hair could only endure it helplessly. This was the price that had to be paid for speed. No one was an exception.

It sounds complicated, but it actually takes just an instant. Soon, they reached the node that Black Hair had mentioned before. The time consumed was less than one-third of what they had initially estimated. Fortunately, Black Hair had prepared in advance by inputting sufficient data into the optical brain; otherwise, they might have deviated from their course by a great distance.

If someone were watching from above the virtual corridor at this moment, they would notice that the virtual corridor resembled blood vessels, with Black Hair’s fleet acting as the blood cells within them. Driven by the flow of the “blood vessels,” they moved at high speed—being at one node one moment and possibly disappearing on the far side the next.

Under such conditions, life on the warships was not easy either. Thankfully, after some time, everyone gradually adapted, and the terrifying sense of being pushed around lessened. But just as they thought they could breathe a sigh of relief, another change occurred.

Right before their eyes, the dreamlike halo tunnel suddenly broke apart…

“Oh, damn…” Everyone was horrified. Monkey couldn’t even finish cursing before everything went dark before his eyes. When it became bright again, they had arrived in a strange space—a hollow sphere filled with purple crystals in all directions. Black Hair’s fleet was at the center of this hollow sphere…

“Oh, God. What place is this!?” Everyone was stunned by the sight before them. Staring at the beautiful crystal sphere, they were all speechless.

Perhaps before accelerating, everyone here had imagined what they would find upon arrival, but none of them could have imagined such a place. Huge purple crystals filled every direction, creating a world of crystals. Under light coming from somewhere unknown, they emitted a mesmerizing glow. Each crystal was prismatic, resembling sharp swords.

“This… this is…” Blood-Pupil, who had remained silent until now, was also shocked by the sight. He opened his mouth as if to groan in awe.

“This is the resource site left by the Tarot,” Black Hair continued. At this moment, he too stood by the window, his face filled with admiration.

“It’s truly breathtakingly beautiful. If one hadn’t seen it with their own eyes, who could have imagined that in this universe, there exists a place where stone essences can grow without refinement?”

“What!? You mean they’re all stone essences?” As Black Hair spoke, Monkey and the others exclaimed in surprise in unison.