Chapter 129: The Black Bamboo 40943909 Assault! The Flagship of the Hunter Fleet, an Official from Depei Defense Company, Arrived at Old Dan.

Dozens of fully armed soldiers were binding their bodies with energy shackles, and they were also fitted with inner-force limiters and psychic suppressors. Furthermore, two medics in white coats were injecting an unknown serum into their systems.

The bearded colonel glared furiously at the three middle-aged men dressed in black Taoist robes before him. Countless ultra-fine mycelial threads emerged from his pores, slowly siphoning his strength, rendering his body soft as cotton. He could barely manage to stand upright.

A Lieutenant Colonel from the Special Operations Bureau held a large-caliber pistol to the back of the bearded colonel’s head, taunting Gu Xichen over the communicator.

"My apologies, Director. I, Philimus, am the fleet commander now. I cannot help you deal with that monster.”

The Lieutenant Colonel smugly tapped the back of the bearded colonel’s head with the barrel of his gun.

The bearded colonel roared in fury, "Philimus, are you daring to rebel?" Philimus cried out in feigned surprise, "Rebel? How is this rebellion? The brave Director led from the front, venturing deep into Pluto to hunt the Christo Crystal People, and was unfortunately struck down by the powerful Crystal Person. This has nothing to do with me."

He sighed.

Philimus looked up to the heavens and lamented, "Of course, the Director was a hero of the Federation; his demise is a massive loss to the entire Federation. I will certainly inherit his will, control all the superhumans of the Federation, and make new contributions to the Federation!" "You!" the bearded colonel spat, enraged. Philimus sharply struck the bearded colonel’s head with the butt of his pistol. He roared, "Of course, I once swore allegiance to Colonel Gu Xichen, but that was allegiance born of necessity; it was never my true intention! Don't you know?" Philimus gasped and roared, "Colonel Uriah has fallen. If we don't seek shelter under Gu Xichen, we're all doomed. That's why we swore loyalty to him! But it wasn't our true wish. We never truly wanted to obey him!" Gritting through the intense pain, the bearded colonel roared, "You bastards, if I had known this was the case, I would have purged you all long ago!" Philimus casually flipped his pistol in a flashy maneuver and smiled faintly, "Oh, there was no opportunity for that. With the powerful cultivators of the Three Witches Sect here, you stand no chance."

He sighed again.

Philimus complained, "Honestly, I didn't want to do this, but who made Lord Gu Xichen so harsh on us? When Colonel Uriah was in charge, besides our regular salaries and bonuses, we had other benefits. The authority we wielded made people fearful, and the dark power we controlled was enough to deter the entire Federation."

"But what did Colonel Gu Xichen do? He brought the superhumans into the sunlight, exposing them to all the Federation's citizens. Oh, those damned mixed-blood mongrels, those cursed genetic mutants—they should be like rats in the gutters for us to crush at will! Why should they receive such good treatment? Damn it, our Special Operations Bureau has truly become an agency serving them! Look at those damned mixed-bloods; they’ve actually gotten uppity."

Philimus shrieked hysterically, "Don't we know how many young people in the Federation possess latent superhuman potential? We monitor everyone! But we allowed them to hide within society—that aligned with our greatest interests!"

"To prevent their sons from being captured by our Special Operations Bureau for experiments, their parents had to give us a monthly stipend."

"To prevent their sons from being conscripted to the battlefield, their parents had to willingly serve us."

"To keep their own parents out of prison for bribing Federation officials, those little brats with psychic powers had to willingly submit to our commands."

"They are our crop, which we can harvest at will! Ah, we can do whatever we want, go wherever we please! Do you know how magnificent the feeling is to press two sisters, one fire-elemental and one ice-elemental, into bed? Oh, I have savored such an exquisite delicacy; it made me feel like I was God himself!" Waving the pistol vigorously, Philimus shouted excitedly, "I felt like God! Two powerful superhuman sisters, doing whatever I wanted just to protect their parents! After I got tired of them, I sent them to the underwater laboratory to become the professor's test subjects! Oh, how wonderful!" Stomping hard on the bearded colonel's leg, Philimus roared, "But Colonel Gu Xichen destroyed all of that! The wonderful lives enjoyed by so many of our brothers in the Special Operations Bureau were ruined by him! Legislation to protect superhumans? Legislation to favor superhumans? The Federation establishing specialized schools to train them? The Federation paying huge sums every year to support these damned curs? Even forcing our brothers in the Special Operations Bureau to become their slaves to serve them!"

He stomped on the bearded colonel again, shaking his head repeatedly, "We cannot tolerate it, truly, we cannot endure it! These lowly mixed-blood bastards should be ours to oppress and trample upon, ours to enjoy! Colonel Uriah was the leader we truly recognized. As for Colonel Gu Xichen? He should have been killed by the Crystal People!"

The bearded colonel glared at Philimus and roared, "You sons of bitches!"

Philimus cackled, shaking his hips smugly, "Yes, we are sons of bitches! Hundreds of thousands of our brothers in the Special Operations Bureau are sons of bitches! We love it! Oh, what a perfect opportunity! The Director is killed by the Crystal People, you and several other hunter ships are destroyed by the Crystal People, and I bring back a large haul of high-level Crystal People to the Federation, earning immense merit! The esteemed Daoist Masters of the Three Witches Sect helping me become the new Director of the Special Operations Bureau—it couldn't be more perfect!"

With a few sinister chuckles, Philimus leaned in close to the bearded colonel with a wicked grin, "We will restore the proper order of the Special Operations Bureau. We will control all the superhuman training schools; all those mixed-blood freaks will become our playthings. Those beautiful, lovely young girls with psychic powers—we can play with them however we wish! Those damned, lowly young mutant brutes—we’ll send them to the front lines on Paradise Star! It’s truly the feeling of being God!"

"Ptooey!" The bearded colonel was completely immobilized by the strange mycelium; he couldn't move a single finger, but he could still spit. After building it up for a long time, he unleashed a great wad of saliva, over a hundred milliliters, splattering directly onto Philimus's face. A large sheet of saliva trickled down Philimus's chin.

The bearded colonel had a rather unsavory habit: he loved smoking cigars and chewing betel nuts. Sometimes, he even liked to mix tobacco shreds with betel nut to chew. As the former leader of the Hell's Angels Mercenary Group, his standards for brushing his teeth were not very high due to austere conditions on some missions. Consequently, his saliva carried an indescribable stench, comparable to some forms of biochemical warfare gas.

Philimus was laughing wide-mouthed when nearly half of that glob of saliva washed straight into his mouth. The foul stench shot straight to his core. Seeing the bearded colonel’s rugged face, Philimus clutched his throat and rushed to a corner of the command room, opening his mouth to vomit violently.

The three black-robed Daoists squinted and sneered for a moment. One of them gestured with a finger, and the bearded colonel made a few gurgling sounds before swaying and collapsing onto the floor. A massive layer of mycelium enveloped his body, and two pale-red mushrooms slowly began to sprout from his nostrils.

In the subterranean hall, Gu Xichen stared intently at the colorless Crystal Person slowly approaching. Zhao Yi and the others were prepared in their Sea of Consciousness; the Heavenly Net Formation was ready to be activated. Gu Xichen concentrated all his psychic energy in the Sea of Consciousness, desperately compressing it. A sphere of black light enveloped his almost substantial psychic power, vibrating and amplifying itself repeatedly. With an amplification factor exceeding sixty times that of a black Christo Crystal Sphere, combined with Gu Xichen's current immense psychic strength, the resulting shockwave was powerful enough to instantly obliterate a mountain.

At this critical juncture, three thin black lines suddenly shot down from the sky. With three distinct hissing sounds, three oddly shaped, thumb-thick, ten-meter-long venomous snakes wrapped themselves around the colorless Crystal Person. Strange talismans flowed across the snakes' bodies, and whenever they opened their mouths, they spewed black, dense fog. The putrid stench made one want to retch from far away.

The three long snakes tightly coiled around the colorless Crystal Person, straining their bodies. Accompanied by piercing screeches, they opened their jaws to reveal black venomous fangs nearly an inch long, biting desperately at the Crystal Person's body. Tiny sparks erupted from the Crystal Person's skin, and a few broken fangs fell from the snakes' mouths.

"Heh, heh, heh!" A low laugh drifted down from the sky. A gaunt Daoist, clad in black Taoist robes and holding a black bamboo staff, descended from the heavens carrying an aura of wicked depravity. He looked at the motionless, colorless Crystal Person and nodded with a smile, "Good. Very good. I never imagined such a natural treasure existed here. Had I known these stone lumps contained a spiritual object condensed from a ten-thousand-year earth vein essence, this King would have overturned Pluto to capture you." He glanced sideways at Gu Xichen. The Daoist chuckled strangely, "Gu Xichen, do you recognize this King?" Gu Xichen sighed deeply. He nodded seriously, "I recognize you. Are you not the Black Bamboo King of Night?"

The Black Bamboo Sorcerer King laughed a few times, threw his head back, and sneered, "Since you recognize this King, are you not afraid?" Gu Xichen tilted his head, looked up at the sky, and sighed, "In this world, there are truly only the stupid who are not afraid of death."

The lazy sigh faded. Gu Xichen roared into the communicator, "The main event is here! Kill!" Dozens of screams immediately echoed through the receiver.

(A reminder to my brothers for the intermission break; thank you all for the monthly passes! Hehe, happy voting, happy updates from Pig Head! [To be continued])