“Nesethes, prepare the Star Annihilation Cannon!”
Lu Qingshan stood and watched a silver E3-class ship come flying toward them from the distance.
It was a transport freighter custom-built by the Virtual Universe Company, with almost no means of attack, but it was fast—nearly the equal of an E5-class ship—and its interior space was large, letting it carry more crew and cargo.
Merchant caravans would generally keep a few ships like this on hand. After all, not everything could be stashed inside an interspatial ring.
“The Star Annihilation Cannon has locked onto the target.”
Nesethes’s cold, emotionless voice came through.
“Then what are you waiting for? Fire!”
“Boom!”
A pale blue wave of light burst from the cannon’s muzzle, followed by energy enough to destroy everything.
The Star Annihilation Cannon mounted on an E-class Machine Race ship was immensely powerful; a single shot could easily annihilate a planet, on par with an all-out strike from an Undying Army Leader.
The E3-class transport had only just come out of the Dark Universe. Facing that sudden shot, it barely had a chance to react.
And even if it could react, it would be useless—once the Star Annihilation Cannon had locked onto it, escape was almost impossible!
“Boom—!!”
The massive E3-class transport erupted in a violent explosion, flames surging skyward as though a star were going nova.
“Damn, what happened over there?”
On a D5-class ship tens of thousands of kilometers away, a giant covered in black fur, looking like an ape, stared with eyes as round as bronze bells, unable to believe it.
“David, run! That’s a Star Annihilation Cannon... one shot could reduce us to ash.”
The ship’s core AI blared a piercing alarm.
“A Star Annihilation Cannon? Isn’t that a fearsome weapon only fitted to ships carrying Undying powerhouses? Did they run into an Undying’s attack over there?”
“Run! Stop standing around—run, accelerate into the Dark Universe!”
The passengers on several nearby ships were thrown into panic by the sudden shot. Moments later, almost every one of them reacted the same way: turn around, accelerate, enter the Dark Universe, get away from this terrifying place.
Still, their fears were clearly unnecessary. Lu Qingshan had no intention of paying them any mind.
Good that they ran.
Better to avoid too many eyes around that might see what they shouldn’t.
Lu Qingshan opened the hatch and flew out.
At the site of the explosion, the transport had been reduced to ashes. The Treasure Pavilion employees aboard had, like the ship itself, become cosmic dust. Only one dust-covered World Master powerhouse was left, staring at it all in terror.
“A Star Annihilation Cannon—how could it be a Star Annihilation Cannon!” He truly could not figure out why he would be targeted by a Star Annihilation Cannon.
If the ship hadn’t been modified with an extra layer of defense, and if he hadn’t still been wearing his origin force battle suit, that shot would have left him like the rest of the crew—without even an intact corpse.
A World Master powerhouse like himself... in any Cosmic Nation he could hold down a territory of his own, and yet just now he had nearly been wiped out by a single shot.
“Who are you...”
The Treasure Pavilion’s World Master looked at the armored brute coming toward him, a flicker of fear in his eyes. He knew perfectly well that shot had been this man’s work.
After taking that hit, his body was severely damaged; in his current state he could hardly contend with a powerhouse of the same rank.
“I am Han Li, a space pirate!”
Lu Qingshan’s Ghost King avatar grinned, revealing a cruel smile.
Inside the ship, Shang Jie—eyes bloodshot, having watched the whole thing through the ship’s monitors—was left gaping.
“Master... he... didn’t he say before that he hated space pirates more than anything?”
Still, Shang Jie’s loyalty to Lu Qingshan was absolute; he would not doubt a single word his master said.
“Master must have just changed his mind and decided that being a space pirate is a meaningful profession. That has to be it!!”
Shang Jie was fine.
The Treasure Pavilion’s World Master, on the other hand, was dumbfounded.
“A space pirate?”
A space pirate riding an E-class Machine Race ship?
A space pirate who attacks merchant ships with a Star Annihilation Cannon?
I’m a World Master, I nearly got blasted out of existence, and you’re telling me this is a space pirate.
“My friend.” The world power inside the Treasure Pavilion World Master was frantically repairing his wounds even as he contacted Treasure Pavilion headquarters, dragging out the time: “You must have me mistaken. Our Treasure Pavilion has an Undying Deity standing behind us, and our boss is an Undying under the Qianwu Country Master... Leave now, and I’ll pretend this never happened.”
The Treasure Pavilion World Master was no fool. The other man had come out alone, which meant he did not fear him. He was gravely wounded now—never mind a Star Annihilation Cannon, the nine E3 laser cannons on that Machine Race ship alone would be more than he could handle.
What was more, the man before him was an existence at the same level as his own.
“It seems you didn’t listen carefully to what I just said. I’m a space pirate. If you don’t hand over the cargo, why would I leave?”
“Cargo?”
The Treasure Pavilion World Master’s face changed drastically.
In the World Ring on his hand was Black Obsidian Mother Stone worth 100 Hunyuan units.
Could this have been a scheme from start to finish?
“My patience has run out. Die!”
The Ghost King avatar took a single step forward, and in a blink he was tens of thousands of kilometers away. The Star-Cleaving Blade slashed out at an inconceivable speed, and in an instant the World Master opposite him had been torn into pieces!!
The Ghost King avatar put away his blade and stood to one side, then beckoned, and the World Ring floating in the air came into his hand.
The Qingshan Secret Method truly was powerful.
With that one slash, his opponent had almost no ability to resist.
What the One-Horned Ghost King avatar had just used was exactly the first move from the Qingshan Secret Manual—Epiphyllum.
That move was fast to the absolute limit, comparable to teleportation. Against an opponent at the World Master Third Stage who had not been acknowledged by origin law, never mind that he was injured—even at full strength, he would have melted away in an instant.
“If my true self were the one using it, this move’s power probably wouldn’t be this great—a tenth would be about right. This One-Horned Ghost King avatar really is fearsome in combat!”
Lu Qingshan had to admit that when it came to wielding the Time Law, his true self was absolutely no match for the Ghost King avatar; the gap between them was at least tenfold...
Of course, when it came to the Lightning Origin Law, his true self... still could not match the Ghost King avatar either.
After all, the Ghost King avatar was at a fiftyfold gene level, so its base strength was fifty times that of Lu Qingshan’s true self. Not counting that, Lu Qingshan’s true self would be a bit stronger.
Once the World Ring’s owner was dead, Lu Qingshan’s consciousness swept over it brutally and erased the remnant will left within.
The World Ring was not small—more than ten times larger than the one Lu Qingshan had before. In the center of the ring’s space sat a mountain of Black Obsidian Mother Stone!
“With this Black Obsidian Mother Stone, plus the Luoke God Water, the Star-Eating Grass’s chances of breaking through to World Master have improved enormously... I just don’t know whether it can evolve once more after breaking through.”
Lu Qingshan looked again at the spot where the World Master had been killed.
The man had died too fast; his World Master’s world hadn’t even shattered.
“What a waste. I don’t have time to look through his Inner World—my haul is much smaller for it...”
A World Master would generally keep his most precious things inside his World Master’s world. The Inner World was vast and full of world power; apart from its owner, an outsider could hardly search it thoroughly in a short time... And if he didn’t leave now, Kunshaluo would probably get word and come running.
The Ghost King avatar flashed into the ship, Nesethes piloted it, and the ship soon vanished into the Dark Universe.
As for the Inner World left behind, it would most likely drift through the universe, or take shelter in that spatial interlayer, becoming like World Master Lei Ting’s Inner World—a place for treasure hunts or mercenary trials.
Chapter 73