The wound that pierced the knee made the punk collapse to the ground, unable to escape. Accompanied by his wails, a thick smell of blood also began to spread.
Xavier gave a soft “tch.”
Covering his nose, he urged in a muffled voice, “Finish it quickly.”
“No, no, no!”
The punk endured the excruciating pain and begged for mercy, his tears and snot smudged all over his face. “Don’t kill me, I know I was wrong, don’t kill me! I have money, my, take all my money—”
He rolled over on the ground, anxiously rummaging through the things in his pockets, his shivering hands frantically pulling out valuables, thinking the man in front of him had come to rob the robbers, trying to trade this for his own miserable life.
Kane turned a deaf ear to the tearful, snotty pleas, his right hand already resting on the hidden plasma annihilation gun at his waist.
Until a small stone rolled and landed at the tip of his shoe.
“Huh?”
Xavier let out a soft exclamation. While staring intently at the stone, he spoke up, “Stop.”
Kane’s movement of touching his weapon paused. His gaze dropped down, and he picked up the unremarkable, light-gray little stone.
“There’s something wrong with this stone?”
Xavier nodded, deep in thought.
This was clearly the magical ore he wanted to find, and he hadn’t expected it to actually be on RX-2.
He looked at the punk still sprawled limply on the ground.
“Where did this stone come from?”
The punk was dazed for a moment before he realized it was the little intelligent entity he had originally wanted to rob that was speaking. But he had long since lost his earlier arrogance, terrified that a wrong word would cost him his life. Swallowing nervously, he answered carefully, “I, I picked it up.”
“Lying.”
Xavier let out a light rebuke, his rose-gold pupils carrying undisguised impatience and arrogance as he said coldly, “Put away your clumsy lies, human; you are not yet qualified to deceive me.”
His voice was clear and alluring, so pleasant it made one lose their wits, yet wrapped in bone-chilling coldness—a side of him Kane had never seen before.
Kane lowered his eyelids, his gaze sweeping across Xavier’s face, thinking to himself that the little fellow had actually restrained himself somewhat even in front of him.
“I’ll talk! I’ll talk! A few days ago, I robbed an old man. He’s the descendant of a miner from back in the day, and he occasionally wanders around the already abandoned mining area. I got this from him!”
Kane’s gaze remained fixed on Xavier and his spiritual tentacles, taking the opportunity to ask, “Which mining area?”
The punk’s eyes darted around, and he said breathlessly, “I don’t know, that old man didn’t say. If the two Lords want to know, I can take you to find him.”
His unreasonable heartbeat was distinctly obvious to both of them.
Xavier had no patience to waste words with him, and his eager spiritual tentacles had already revealed their sharp edges, waiting only for their master’s order to drag the ignorant human on the other side—who dared repeatedly lie and deceive the Blood Prince—into a boundless nightmare.
Yet step ahead, Kane covered Xavier’s eyes and placated him in a calm voice, “There’s no need to casually use your spiritual power.”
From Kane’s perspective, the pretty jellyfish that had originally glowed with fluorescent light began to flicker dim and bright along with Xavier’s anger, as if it were exhausted.
Perhaps the simulated spiritual power had certain limitations?
In any case, Xavier couldn’t be allowed to exhaust his abilities right at this moment. Kane thought, consider it for the sake of his own spiritual sea disorder.
“……Fine.”
Xavier’s anger subsided a bit under Kane’s calm voice.
After calming down, he also realized that he was still in a state of magic shortage. After all, competing with Kane earlier was to reach a cooperative agreement, but wasting power on a minor punk like this would definitely be a losing trade.
Xavier’s jawline tightened, and out of habit he issued commands, “You take care of it.”
Kane narrowed his eyes dangerously, but catching out of the corner of his eye that Xavier was covering his nose, his delicate face full of unhappiness, alongside the translucent, pretty jellyfish behind him whose luster had nearly withered, he temporarily put his displeasure aside.
He drew his weapon, the plasma annihilation gun body gleaming coldly. Without even needing to press it against anyone’s head, the punk had already sensed its extreme danger.
——Death was waving hello to him.
Under the black, hollow gaze of the muzzle, the punk couldn’t move a muscle all over his body, and stammered as he pleaded, “Yes, I, I accidentally beat that old man to death, I didn’t mean to, I really don’t know which mining area it is… but this little one knows that old man! I can take the Lords to find his house!”
The muzzle pressed forward with a slight force, and Kane’s gaze carried an overwhelming deterrence: “My patience ends here. Which mining area, speak.”
A man who had lived in a high position for years naturally brought a fierce, domineering, and unquestionable air when he spoke. The punk’s fear welled up from the depths of his soul, and he couldn’t help prostrating himself flat on the ground again, saying tremblingly.
“It’s the northern mining area, in the old mining area five hundred kilometers north of Florui City… That old man couldn’t walk far, the farthest he could go was only there. I’ve said everything I know, please let me go…”
Terrified to death, the punk lay on the ground rolling back and forth begging for mercy, until his knees were numb with pain, before he finally reacted and jerked his head up.
The direction of the alley exit was already completely empty.
Only then did he let out a long breath, gritting his teeth as he complained, “Hell, I actually ran into a black-eat-black situation. If I’d known, I should have stopped after killing that old man. My luck has been really… “
Before the words finished, a specially-made bullet blasted into his abdomen, and hundreds of trillions of body cells began to annihilate at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Not long after, only two pools of blood remained on the ground.
Reyn, walking out from deeper within the alley, scratched his head in confusion, “Strange, why did the boss want me to make a move? Why didn’t he just do it himself?”
On the other side, Kane, having mounted the Phantom once again, pinched that small stone and turned it over casually, “You want this kind of ore? I can send people to look for it.”
Xavier shook his head, “I’ll go myself.”
He could still wait, but Celin was growing weaker day by day. His spiritual power was ultimately different from Celin’s homologous magic; it could only relieve a temporary emergency, but could not repair the lich’s increasingly frail soul body.
Since there was news of magical ores, even if the mining area was already abandoned, he wanted to go over immediately to understand the situation.
Tossing the unremarkable stone up and catching it, Kane asked offhandedly, “So this is your second request?”
Xavier gave him a sidelong glance, accusing the man of petty calculation.
“Before dawn breaks, set off as quickly as possible.” His Highness the Prince sank his face, ruthlessly urging, “If you’re late, there’s no reward.”
Catching the stone, Kane gave a light scoff at the words, though he didn’t reject Xavier’s request, answering casually, “Fine, waiting for your reward.”
The Phantom VF-9 sped rapidly toward the outskirts, and a speed easily exceeding three hundred kilometers per hour brought them to the northern mining area very quickly.
This abandoned mining area, which looked like mottled patches of color when viewed from above, had lost its original purpose a hundred years ago due to the exhaustion of its mineral sources.
The massive equipment of the past propped crookedly in mid-air, covered in densely packed holes.
The wind of the old mining area blew through the mine tunnels, making a wailing sound that seemed to be mixed with some strange noises.
Xavier swept his gaze over the equipment gnawed into a mottled mess, and casually patted Kane’s neck.
The moment their skin touched, Kane’s muscles tightened abruptly, and he quickly snatched Xavier off his shoulder with a look of astonishment.
He stopped in his tracks, his grey-blue eyes sweeping over Xavier’s face full of confusion and his exceptionally slender, fair hands.
The little soft hand of the intelligent entity had just patted against the skin of his side neck without any scruples—a spot that made most creatures feel deeply threatened.
Although Kane’s physique as a human weapon didn’t require extra protection, precisely because his combat instincts had become instinctive, he shouldn’t have been easily approached by Xavier like that.
Kane’s brows furrowed tightly, feeling that something wasn’t quite right with himself.
During his silence lasting several seconds, Xavier finally ran out of patience and mercilessly mocked him.
“Lord Bandit, you couldn’t possibly be scared, could you?”
The man stared at his oblivious yet still provoking expression, and the unexplainable irritation deep in his heart grew even worse.
Yet with his emotions suppressed deep down, he instead grinned.
The exposed snow-white canine teeth added a touch of wickedness and fierceness to his stern and handsome face.
“Little fellow, trading rule number two: don’t touch me casually.”
Xavier, who saw Kane baring his teeth: ……
Xavier had no idea at all that his casual action had touched the other’s reverse scale.
He pressed the bridge of his nose, the first sorrow hanging on his tiny face.
The selected mount started acting shy and won’t work anymore; what should be done about this?
It was too late to change now, so Xavier could only wave his hand impatiently.
“Got it, got it. Also, call me Your Highness the Prince; you are always ignoring the most basic social etiquette.”
“You should get used to this; never hold expectations of moral standards for ‘Mr. Bandit’.”
Kane reminded him indifferently, placing Xavier back on his shoulder, and walked straight into a mine tunnel with unusual noises.
The passage was dark, and the air was filled with a mixed smell of blood and foulness.
The entry of the two broke the balance inside the mine tunnel.
At the end of the passage, a terrifying, heavy roar sounded, and immediately the earth began to tremble.
Powerful night-vision capabilities made everything clearly visible.
Only to see the monster rushing over covered all over in deformed flesh, its body surface also bearing mottled, dark magical halos.
Thin gold radiance flowed in Xavier’s pupils, and he recognized that this was a demonized creature completely distorted and corrupted by unpurified magic ore!
Roaring, it lunged forward, and the stinky wind almost flipped the hems of their clothes.
Kane’s right fist was already covered with mecha armor, and just as he was about to throw a punch, his peripheral vision caught the pure white tentacles stirring in the dark.
A thought flashed in his mind, and the next second, ink-black spiritual power devoid of any impurities surged wildly out of his body, carrying a destructive dominance that instantly wrapped around the monster’s mutated limbs, wrapping tightly and suppressing its violent struggling to the death.
The moment the ink-black vines tightened, the pure white spiritual tentacles accurately probed in through the gaps of the black vines.
The originally soft tentacles turned as sharp as blades, piercing straight into the demonized creature’s contaminated spiritual core.
The monster struggled violently.
Yet the black and white forces of spiritual power were already cooperating to hunt and purge inside its body.
Accompanied by the shattering of the mutated core, the demonized creature emitted a final, shrill wail, its massive body collapsing to the ground with a loud thud, and the dark magical halo on its body dissipated into thin air.
Only the faint, wailing sound of the wind remained in the mine tunnel.
The battle was over, though the spiritual power of the two still maintained a faint connection, like an invisible thread linking them to each other.
Guided by that thread of spiritual power, not only did Kane fail to show any signs of a spiritual sea disorder outbreak, but even that unspeakable irritability from just now vanished entirely.
He lowered his gaze to look at Xavier on his shoulder. The fierce edge in his grey-blue eyes had not yet fully dispersed, but his tone softened drastically, carrying an unexpected surprise.
“Good cooperation.”
The cooperation was indeed good.
Xavier didn’t plan to refute it against his conscience.
Only…
He looked in shock at the vine-like spiritual power that had laid out across almost the entire passage.
He hadn’t expected that the “manifestation” after spiritual resonance would appear on a human!
In Xavier’s worldview, this was simply as absurd as seeing a shark walk ashore.
Yet looking at Kane’s powerful spiritual power and his physique capable of hard-carrying a spiritual sea disorder, Xavier felt that after three thousand years, it was indeed very possible that human spiritual capabilities were no longer what they used to be, and Kane after all was still the leader of the strongest star pirate group.
Three thousand years, perhaps enough for a shark to evolve legs…
His Highness the Antique, Prince Xavier Vantrue, had no Celin to complain to and could only silently digest this status quo, when suddenly his spine went numb.
He spun around abruptly, only to find that the manifested black spiritual power had stealthily touched his spiritual tentacles.
The nearly substantial touch made the little Prince’s body tremble again, instinctively pulling back, which prompted Kane to shoot him a glance.
Kane’s spiritual power was ink-black without any impurities, shaped like vines, thick first and then thin. Xavier’s spiritual power was pure white and flawless, shaped like a jellyfish, with a disguised softness hiding a fatal edge.
Regardless of color or size, the two presented a sharp contrast.
At this moment, Kane’s spiritual power was taking advantage of its length advantage to sneakily rest on top of the jellyfish, curling, curling, wrapping the other party completely.
The big jellyfish tried to pull back, but was blocked by the second, third black vine, which continued to curling, curling.
Xavier looked closely, and there were still a fourth, fifth, sixth… hiding in the shadows, queuing up behind.
“…”
Xavier’s eyes widened slightly, almost unable to believe his eyes. When he spoke, his tone lacked its usual elegance and laziness, even raising the ending note as he questioned Kane, who stood nearby witnessing everything yet remaining indifferent.
“Aren’t you going to do something about this, Mr. Bandit???”