Chapter 1447: Show of Power
The Big Ben Research Institute!!
Sheyan had not heard that name for a while, but not only had it never faded away from Sheyan's mind, he had thought about it many, many times, especially after the expedition to the Predator planet. All the mysteries about the place left a lot of questions in Sheyan's mind.
Sheyan also had a feeling that his mysterious origin, Jinkuang's bizarre disappearance, and all the good luck he had enjoyed throughout his adventures so far, despite seemingly disjointed and unrelated to each other, were all connected by a hidden thread behind the scenes!
And the end of the hidden thread was likely inside the Big Ben Research Institute!
With that in mind, Sheyan nodded and replied, "In that case, the prince shall get what he wants."
The Brigadier General heaved a sigh of relief. He appeared calm on the surface, but he was actually rather anxious. He knew very well how strong the Lieutenant General in front of him was. The Lieutenant General could probably kill everyone on the large warship without breaking a sweat. It would not be wise to infuriate him.
But the captain could not ignore Prince Pombaru's order either. Following the rapid increase of his power, Prince Pombaru was now all but certain to become the heir to the throne. To pass on the words of one side to the other was not an enviable task. If the captain performed the task well, it was only reasonable because it was his duty, but if he messed it up, he would face terrible consequences. He would either die of serious injury or would have to leave his office. No one would willingly handle such a high risk, low reward job if they did not have to.
Seeing Sheyan nod his head, the captain immediately passed down some orders. After making sure that the members of Party Ace were all on board, a blue flame erupted from the exhaust of the large spaceship until it was more than two kilometres long. It propelled the gigantic ship that weighed hundreds of thousands of tons forward. The spaceship accelerated and disappeared among the sea of stars.
Sheyan closed his eyes and felt the steady and resolute power of the engine with his body. He did not care about things like royal authority. Prince Pombaru's invitation was nothing more to him than a ticket to enter the Big Ben Research Institute.
As for what the prince wanted to know, and all the details... The corner of Sheyan's lips curled slightly. It's true, everyone had a price, but Prince Pombaru's friendship was simply too cheap; Sheyan did not care for it at all. As for the consequence of disappointing the prince? Sheyan was unconcerned, just as Noah Realm C was never concerned that the Empire would plot against it.
***
After passing through six wormholes and flying for hundreds of thousands of light-years, Sheyan finally reached the centre of the Empire, a planet named the Granite Planet, also known as the Central Planet!
The planet was discovered in the 87th year of the interstellar colonisation era. It was 745 times the volume and 95.18 times the mass of Earth. It was surrounded by colorful cloud belts and was orbited by many satellites. Its equatorial radius was roughly 60,330 km.
The planet was most famous for being the only place of origin of the Granite Beasts, a type of stone creature known as one of the "Eight Wonders of the Universe".
Even though the whole Empire spanned across seven galaxies and ruled over more than 230 billion planets, the special environment of the Granite Planet was unique, not only because it had a climate even more suitable for human habitation than the Earth - in fact, there were more than 3000 planets within the Empire's territory that could claim the same - but also because of the miraculous Granite Beasts.
The Granite Beasts, as their name implied, looked similar to granite. Even when one was placed next to a granite, it was hard to tell the two apart. The Granite Beasts were huge creatures that grew on mountains and had two forms, solid and liquid. They were in solid form mostly when they were resting on the surface of a mountain. They would attach themselves to the mountain like chewing gum, making them very difficult to identify. They were often big enough to cover the entire mountain.
This was the form they were normally seen in. In this form, the Granite Beasts were usually in a dormant state. Only activities like mining or road building would wake them up.
When the Granite Beasts turned to liquid, it signified that they were going to hunt. A Granite Beast would slowly wriggle to another mountain with the speed and grace of a snail - or rather, a slug. It would cover the mountain like a layer of membrane, then secrete acid to digest the captured organic creatures. It's outer surface would slowly solidify into a granite-like surface, making it look no different from an actual mountain.
Because of its slow speed, few animals would be caught by it. Most of the creatures that became its food were insects and plants. It was impossible for humans to fall prey to this creature that could move no more than five kilometres a day and only had its digestive fluid as weapon.
But the reason the humans loved the Granite Beast was not because it was harmless, but because it produced a very important substance for the humans. The substance was called cerumen acid, and it had replaced coffee as the new golden drink.
The drink had a peculiar taste and a certain degree of addictiveness, about twice as addictive as tobacco. But more importantly, scientific research had certified that it was greatly beneficial to the human body. It had been proven that people who consume cerumen acid regularly would not suffer from cancer, and their immunity was four to five times stronger than a healthy non-drinker (by future human standard).
Fresh cerumen acid (produced within 24 hours) had the best effect, three times more than processed cerumen acid. Because the Granite Beasts could not be reared on any other planet or environment, the population of the Central Planet naturally increased exponentially. It only took 50 years for the Granite Planet to become the economic centre of the whole Empire. 10 years later, following the arrival of the Emperor to the Granite Planet, it became the Empire's political centre as well. 3.7 billion people were forcibly expelled from this planet that could ensure the health of its inhabitants. Among these 3.7 billion people was the grandfather of the leader of the "Rebels" that were currently putting up an active resistance against the Empire.
One last thing that was worth mentioning was that cerumen acid was actually an excrement of the Granite Beasts... There was nothing wrong with that. It was just the law of nature.
Leafcutter ants love to eat the sweet feces of the aphids, so they take responsibility in protecting the aphids. Ambergris is just the feces formed in the intestines of sperm whales. The raw material of civet coffee is the feces of cats. Humans have long cultivated the habit of looking only at the result and not the origin.
***
Feeling the slight change in gravity through the seats, Sheyan and the others stood up and stretched a little to loosen up. The long, uneventful journey was finally over. Sheyan did not even need to look with his eyes; his numerous sensory threads had already investigated the surroundings. The place was a secret military base surrounded by mountains. There was surprisingly no crowd waiting at the apron to welcome them, only armed soldiers. In addition, there were 11 laser cannons and 37 war chariots around the base, all fully charged and letting out a low roar.
The large warship slowly landed on the airport. An officer then walked into Party Ace's cabin and invited them to move on with a gesture. Sheyan and his party did not care. They followed after the man into an elevator which slowly descended onto the apron.
When the elevator doors slowly opened to reveal the large crowd of soldiers armed to the teeth outside, as well as the cannons aiming at the elevator exit, most people would have started panicking.
But not Sheyan and his party. They had long noticed it and had already discussed what to do. Before the soldiers could even react, Zi, Aziz and Ronnie had all made their moves!!
The helmet and hair of all the soldiers who were pointing their guns at Party Ace were reduced to dust by the Force, but none of the soldiers were injured. The triggers of all the guns broke without a sound and scattered to the ground, but the fingers that were placed on them were all intact.
Of the laser cannons that were aiming at Party Ace, six were emitting black smoke. These six laser cannons were the most powerful ones. Without them, Party Ace could use the warship as cover without any worry that the warship would be destroyed.
If they had not become Executors, Zi, Aziz and Ronnie could not have performed such precise moves. They had not hurt a single person, but such frightening level of control had completely destroyed the morale of the soldiers.
Right then, the front door of the hangar opposite them slid open soundlessly. 12 soldiers wearing large exoskeleton armour strode out of it. These exoskeleton armour looked exquisite and had electric currents flowing around them. The weapons they were equipped with were even more astounding: booster laser turrets, laser cannons, plasma cannons, traction beam arrays, etc. The exterior of the exoskeleton armour was tough enough to withstand a shot from a spaceship cannon!
Unfortunately, when Aldaris unleashed his Psionic Storm, all twelve soldiers immediately fell to the ground convulsing and vomiting like they had an epileptic seizure. The expensive armour which were each as costly as three Pacific-class warships were not damaged at all, but they had become completely useless now.
No matter how powerful a weapon was, without an operator, it was no more than a pile of metal. Aldaris' Psionic Storm acted directly on a person's mind. It did not matter what the material the armour surface was made out of, it could not resist the Psionic Storm in the slightest. However, if Aldaris could promote to an Arbiter like Sheyan, he could probably go one step further and control the minds of the soldiers to do his bidding.
Sheyan looked around as if he was looking at a bunch of messy puppets and said with a smile, "By the constitution of the Empire, those who dare to attack an Imperial Lieutenant General is punishable by death. If you have any other show of power, feel free to let me see it. But this time, I'm not sure I'll hold back."