The Reef Star Region · aboard a T3 interstellar warship in some system · inside an office.
Crack.
Han Tianwang was knocked clean off his feet by a slap and fell to the floor, whereupon a man rushed up and set upon him with a flurry of fists and kicks.
Not satisfied with fists and kicks, the man stood and glanced about, and his eye fell on a carved-stone steed ornament atop his own desk. He walked over, took up the carved-stone steed, and turned to bear down once more on Han Tianwang, who had only just managed to catch his breath.
Han Tianwang, who'd thought the beating over, watched the young master come at him again. At once he cried out in terror, "Young Master Sun… Young Master Sun… I know I was wrong! I truly know I was — wrong — aiya — agh —"
Without a word for Han Tianwang's explanations or his pleas for mercy, this Young Master Sun hefted the stone steed and, without the least ceremony, brought it smashing down on Han Tianwang's body. Already the stone carving was smeared all over with blood.
Standing off to one side, the boss of the Cerberus Interstellar Pirate Company watched this scene and couldn't help a shiver of dread.
On learning what had happened in the Reef Star Region, Young Master Sun had hurried back at the first moment and summoned the pair of them. After Han Tianwang stepped into the office, Young Master Sun had at first met him with a smiling face — but soon his look changed, and he'd fallen on Han Tianwang with a rain of blows.
"I goddamn left you in the Reef Star Region to watch the house for me — not to squander those interstellar powers I nurtured! I was gone a bare two months. Three interstellar powers, wrecked out of existence by you lot! My six systems! My 8,000 interstellar warships! My 10 T3 interstellar warships! How the hell are you going to pay me back for them?!" Young Master Sun beat him and beat him until he'd worn himself out, panting for breath.
"Young Master, a towel." The attendant beside him behaved as though he'd seen nothing at all; he merely offered up a towel and, at the same time, took the carved-stone steed from Young Master Sun's hand. By now the steed's head was nowhere to be found.
Young Master Sun took the towel and wiped the blood off his hands, then wiped the smears of blood from his face and from his clothes. But the blood on his clothes was very hard to wipe clean. Wiping and wiping, Young Master Sun suddenly threw the towel down, raised a foot, and went on stamping down hard on Han Tianwang.
"The more I think on it, the angrier I get. I must have been blind, back then, to recruit two fools like you! Lucky that Zhang Haoran died early! He liked women, didn't he? Liked to swagger and play the big man in front of women! I'd have arranged for 10 strapping giant-clan men to see to him good and proper — let him swagger to his heart's content! Damn it! Taking my interstellar warships to vent your own private grudges! Impressive, aren't you!"
The pirate boss watched Han Tianwang — who by now was in too much pain even to cry out, his whole body a bloody pulp, a patch of his skull caved in, a sight too wretched to look upon. Young Master Sun's last several kicks, above all, had been aimed one and all at Han Tianwang's lower body; the mere watching of it brought the boss out in a cold sweat.
Having stamped his fill, Young Master Sun at last returned to the sofa and sat. He looked, displeased, at the motionless Han Tianwang, and waved a hand at his own attendant. The attendant stepped up and injected Han Tianwang with a dose of some drug. Han Tianwang, who a moment ago had been out cold, now came to — but in that instant the pain over every inch of his body came sweeping over him, and the searing agony of his lower body above all very nearly sent him under again. Still he forced the pain down and looked up, cringing, at Young Master Sun on the sofa. "Young Master Sun, I know I did wrong… I too was led astray by that Zhang Haoran…"
"Hmph." Young Master Sun gave a cold snort. Were it not that this Han Tianwang still had his uses — his father a Count, with hope yet of rising to Marquis — he'd long since have let this Han Tianwang taste just what the "tender care" of 10 giant-clan men was like!
Young Master Sun raised his head and opened the campaign data the pirate boss had reported, along with the information on Zhao Chen's fleet ships.
"Young Master Sun! This Zhao Chen holds a whole system in the Reef Star Region — we could blow his affair wide open within the Starlight Empire!" the pirate boss proposed.
Young Master Sun said coldly, "Blow it open, and what of it? Bear in mind we've got our own arrangements in the Reef Star Region too. As things stand, Zhao Chen and I both know of the other's existence; if I blow his cover, won't he blow mine?"
Young Master Sun fixed his gaze on the holographic images of those several interstellar warships. "And this brat's got no end of secrets on him. A T3 interstellar stealth bomber fitted with an all-around star shield? If I could get that ship's technology out of this fellow, that'd be no small haul."
"Then you mean to make a move against Zhao Chen?" the pirate boss said, expectant.
Hearing this, Han Tianwang, lying on the floor, let a look of excitement show too. He truly did badly want to take his revenge on Zhao Chen — for if not for Zhao Chen, he'd not have come to this pass now.
"Not now. Our doings in the Reef Star Region have already stirred up the discontent of those old-line powers; another move, and I don't rule out that they'll turn on us. But I'm assembling an interstellar fleet on my end just now, and in time I'll dispatch this fleet to the Reef Star Region. Once this fleet arrives in the Reef Star Region, what have I to fear from any Snake-folk? The whole of the Reef Star Region — those who follow me prosper, those who cross me perish! As for this Zhao Chen… however I please to crush him, so I'll crush him. Though of course, I mean to have those starship-technology files off him first!" Young Master Sun said, cold and grim.
"Congratulations, Young Master Sun — on your mastery of the Reef Star Region!" the pirate boss hastened to offer.
Young Master Sun smiled and said nothing. The Reef Star Region was but a springboard; he and the organization behind him had far grander designs in the making!
……
The shuttle Zhao Chen rode was drawing near the T3 Goddess Academy-class ship!
Zhao Chen looked at the "crystal ball" before him with some surprise. Though he knew the T3 Goddess Academy's design, seeing this sight for real still left him struck with wonder. There before him hung an enormous "crystal ball," suspended in the cosmos; and within that "crystal ball" one could see a great and beautiful city. That was the Goddess Academy!
The whole hull of the T3 Goddess Academy was built of a special material that could, when needed, turn the outer hull entirely transparent. So it was that the whole T3 Goddess Academy seemed for all the world like a city built inside a crystal ball.
Zhao Chen took in the sight of this "interstellar academy." At the Goddess Academy, besides the new recruits who trained here, there'd also be some active-service fleet women-soldiers who came in their idle hours for advancement training. Everyone hoped to raise their professional skill, and by it win promotion the faster and enjoy higher benefits.
Before long, the shuttle Zhao Chen rode set down in the T3 Goddess Academy's hangar bay. The moment Zhao Chen stepped off, he was met by a vast throng of female cadets — of every race there was — humans, beast-folk and more — each and every one of them fixing eyes bright as torches upon Zhao Chen.
"All the recruits of the Goddess Academy warmly welcome the Commander!" With one hand laid over their hearts, the whole crowd of girls saluted Zhao Chen in perfect unison.