Master of the Stars

Night fell. The darkness of the night sky weaved with the ostentatious lights, kneading silence and restlessness together, revealing the primary colors of the metropolis.

The bustling of the city could swallow everything, but it took just a short thirty seconds for noiseless thunder to roll in from a corner of the night, from the wetlands jungle forgotten by the vast majority of people. It was like a chariot of a god, heavily crushing over.

The surface of the small marshy lake that neighbored Gear was affected from the flaring flames. Some fish leaped up, breaking through the water’s surface. But the fishes trembled in the blink of an eye and smashed back into the water.

A woodcock just so happened to tread around the shallow waters near the shore of the lake. All of the feathers of its body suddenly stuck straight up. It staggered as it rushed to move a few steps, and it flapped its wings to fly off.

Not even a few seconds had passed when thousands upon thousands of different types of panic-stricken birds noisily flew away from among the trees. And beneath their bodies, foxes, badgers, mice, rabbits, and the rarely-seen wolf, deer, and other beasts all began fleeing wildly and chaotically.

Most of them were driven by the sudden collapse of the jungle’s atmosphere. They rushed and stampeded without a goal in mind. Some even collided into trees or fell into the waters. The roars and cries never stopped.

The wetlands jungle instantly became hell. The chaotic collapse rapidly spread.

Under this backdrop of chaos, Gear stood to one side of the jungle. Within the banging racket, a muscular figure rammed through two stories of windows. He leaped out and performed a roll on the ground. He didn’t stop at all as he made a mad dash, charging into the depths of the jungle.

Invisible and silent vibrational waves covered the area surrounding Gear by a several hundred meter radius. The vibration wave blasted across, leaving dead beasts and birds everywhere among the trees. Injuries couldn’t be seen on most of them, but their contorted bodies were strikingly terrifying.

The sound wave mainly damaged the brain and the chest. It resonated with the inherent frequencies of these body parts, causing the nervous system to go in turmoil. The contortion of inner organs caused ruptures, then death, which came either extremely fast, or extremely wretchedly.

Tank witnessed this scene with his own eyes. He had always believed himself to be dauntless, but even he felt a chill run down his spine. His legs moved faster, as he charged ahead in a straight line. He needed to charge out of this realm of death in the shortest possible time.

He uttered a deep howl from his throat while he madly dashed. His inner organs squirmed as his blood and energy gurgled. His many years of cultivating the human body made it so that thunder rang when he roused his blood and energy. This self-formed pattern of sound resisted the deadly sound wave.

The powerful pressure of infrasonic waves came out of nowhere. Though his reactions were quick, he was unable to defend himself from most of the first wave. Then he forcefully stimulated his lungs to withstand the resonance. The feeling was absolutely horrible, and he was accumulating internal injuries.

Though he had obtained perfect control over his inner organs through cultivation, he was devastatingly unable to control his brain. His thunder could only withstand the infrasonic waves for the time being. So, he could only tread into the muddy waters with an ashen face. He could only ram his way through the branches of trees like a dog. His mind was filled with thoughts of fleeing. He didn’t dare think of anything else.

He suddenly relaxed his body several hundred meters into the depths of the jungle. The invisible sound-pressure finally disappeared. Only now did Tank dare to stop his organs from making the sound of thunder. However, he was unable to hold back his blood from rushing upward. It rushed to his throat, and his entire mouth had a bitter taste.

He went, "Pooh!", spitting out bloody foam, and he went to contact Puppeteer through the communications channel. As expected, not a person responded. There was also the mental connection that the mystical Snake Tongue had established; no information came from there as well. This put Tank in an even worse mood.

Then at this exact moment came a different line of communications.

"Yuan Fei?"

This fellow was already under house arrest. It wasn’t easy for him to make communications. However, Tank wasn’t grateful at all. He roared through the line as soon as the connection was made. "What the flippity f*** is going the hell on? Didn’t you say this kid didn’t really have a backer? Why the hell does he have a directed infrasonic wave weapon?"

Yuan Fei’s voice transmitted over, "Are you drunk?"

"Drunk on your mother’s ass!" Tank bit back, having just walked the line between life and death, and having his head messed by the infrasonic waves. He didn’t care who he was talking to and just shot his mouth off, "Mrs. Yuan, you stupid c*nt. You even cheat your own people! Even if you send your *ss to my doorstep in the future, I won’t even give you a single glance!"

"You are indeed drunk." Yuan Fei’s voice was still calm. "In Xia City, only Yongu Fortifications is setup with an infrasonic wave array. To kill you from several hundred kilometers away means to have the people in the entire city all accompany you in death."

"Pingjiang District. Acumen College. North Bank Jungle. The animals here are all freaking dead! Just look! I almost became one of them!"

Tank wanted to roar some more, but his throat choked and he coughed twice. He forcefully pushed down another mouthful of blood that threatened to bubble up. He had no choice but to lower his voice by an octave. But he still spoke fuming with rage through gritted teeth, "I’ll give you some additional information. There’s completely no news from the other members of the mobilization team. Puppeteer and Snake Tongue were all alive and kicking a moment ago, energetically torturing the kid to fess up. But in the blink of an eye, who knows how the hell they died. Either the Xia City branch has made their way over, or the kid’s depth.... I’ll emphasize this a few more times for you. It’s a directed infrasonic wave weapon. A DIRECTED INFRASONIC WAVE WEAPON! F***! F*** F*** F***!"

Yuan Fei was silent for a moment before saying, "I will inform Secretary-General Gong."

Tank roared a few times, and his boiling skull finally calmed a little. He knew that it was pointless to make a fuss. He just said with hate, "There’s nothing that can be said with things the way they are now. I will evacuate based on Plan C...."

"You’re leaving straight out of the city?"

"Motherf***er. Only the military can use a mass-slaughter-class infrasonic wave weapon that easily. You don’t want me to leave the city? Do you want me to be target practice?"

Tank continued to walk forward. He was now a good distance away from Gear. An iota of life actually existed here. Beasts and birds flew and ran madly with great noise and disarray. Chaotic life was still life; it was comforting to him. He spat out a breath of air, discerned the direction, and prepared to enter the dorm area of the school at the north bank. No matter how crazy the military was, they couldn’t possibly use their infrasonic waves there.

Yuan Fei’s voice continued to transmit into his ear, "Verify that all communication records have been uploaded to the cloud. Then destroy all terminal equipment...."

Tank laughed bitterly and was just about to speak when a shiver suddenly ran through his heart. It was as if an invisible hand had pierced his chest and was closing around his heart.

"...."

Tank gaped. The words that were at the tip of his tongue all crumbled to pieces. In its place was a surge of blood. It crackled as it surged up, stupefying his brain while his ears hissed with tinnitus.

The infrasonic waves came again!

Tank felt like his heart was being squeezed so hard that it would burst, but his surroundings were clearly normal. He could still hear the clamor of beasts and birds. He glanced over; they were all alive and kicking.

A dense and ominous sensation bubbled forth, causing Tank to suddenly raise his head. A dark shadow descended upon him, covering the trees from above. It was real. It was an enormous shadow visible to the eyes.

"A black... fish? Devil ray!"

The scene before his eyes finally merged together with the information that came intermittently from the communications channel. But wasn’t this meaningless?

Under the pressure of the enormous shadow in the air above, the nearby beasts and birds all pissed themselves in fear. They flew and ran with all their might, a sensible action for they weren’t in danger of being killed by infrasonic waves.

However, Tank would rather the situation be restored back to what it once was, an impartial treatment to men, beast, fish, and bird. It wasn’t that the infrasonic waves had disappeared. Instead, the infrasonic waves were now perfectly constrained in one direction. All the terrifying energy of the sound pressure was directed toward him. The low frequency vibrational waves pierced through the branches and leaves of the trees. They pierced through his inner organs, skull, and brain, manifesting the malevolent scythe of the grim reaper within. It felt for the frequencies inherent to the several cavities of his body, seeking for a connecting line.

Tank reacted quite quickly. He re-stimulated the sound of thunder the instant his heart received the attack. However, there was a problem. No matter how much he forcefully changed the resonance frequency of his inner organs and produced his unique thundering sound, the infrasonic wave piercing through his brain and inner organs would always change correspondingly and firmly lock on to their frequencies.

The frequencies switched a few times just like this, and Tank became unable to bear it any longer. Especially in the area of his brain, which he couldn’t use his technique on. Havoc wreaked upon it, similar to having a storm blast through the area time and time again. He was crushed over and over, and the powerful attack blasted apart the wall that was his will, freeing massive amounts of negative emotions into his mind.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Tank was truly about to break down. Under the infrasonic waves, his body was torn into several clashing segments from a perfect harmonized whole. His internal energy was in disorder, and his blood started circulating in reverse. Empty space possessed a steel-like strength, yet they clashed and rubbed against each other, dragging each other down.

This wasn’t a powerful attack of fists that struck the flesh. Instead, it was a twisted attack that tore him to pieces from the inside to the outside.

"Tank!"

Yuan Fei and Tank were separated by communication devices. Yuan Fei was unable to feel the pressure of the infrasonic waves that Tank was under, but he was able to hear Tank’s blood-curdling screech with absolute clarity. Then came the noise of branches and leaves snapping, the noise of struggling and rolling, the excessive cursing to the point of shouting oneself hoarse, the begging for forgiveness....

Yuan Fei didn’t try to contact Tank. Calm and collected, he just heard the sound turn from chaotic to even more chaotic. Then, the sound suddenly came to an end. Yuan Fei promptly stood up and walked out of the washroom. He ignored the cold and detached observers as he hurriedly walked back to where he came from.

The 12th floor of Shanding Towers was the same as most floors below the 18th floor. The lighting was very bad. It completely relied on artificial lighting for illumination. And since this floor wasn’t really an area of activity, the simulated natural light didn’t even turn on. The corridor was suffused with a deathly white light. Not an air of a human could be felt.

Midway through the corridor, he saw the Deputy Secretary-General of Headquarters. He was also the leader of this investigation team, Gong Qi.

Gong Qi was a veteran of the ability user society. He was approaching a hundred years old, but he took good care of his health. His appearance was lean, making him look like he was in his seventies, like someone who had just retired. He wore a suit by habit, looked neat and formal, and kept himself in a ramrod straight posture.

Right now, Gong Qi was standing right behind the face of an enormous glass wall. He stared coldly at the situation behind the curtain of glass. He spared Yuan Fei not even a glance, even though he knew Yuan Fei was walking over. His expression didn’t contain even a hint of a smile; it was utterly grave.

Another centenarian was next to him, but this centenarian was a head shorter. He sat in a wheelchair and was beaming. He was in-between Gong Qi and Yuan Fei, and he tilted his head and gave Yuan Fei a laugh, looking quite amiable.

Yuan Fei’s heart throbbed as he saw this smile. He subconsciously slowed his hurried pace.

The person in the wheelchair was Old You, the most veteran ability user of Xia City. He was older than Gong Qi by three years, but he looked to be at least thirty years older. He already lost all his hair, and even his eyebrows were thinly spread. Each side only had a few hairs that hung down to his cheeks. He looked a bit comical.

Yuan Fei felt it become harder and harder to move forward. He had just barely made his way near, and was mulling over how to report to Gong Qi about the matter with Luo Nan, when he suddenly sensed something. He saw Gong Qi holding his left hand behind his back. Gong Qi’s five fingers were slowly rubbing against each other, going sisi.

Yuan Fei’s eyelids shot up, and he lost all thoughts of giving Gong Qi a report. He had followed this Deputy Secretary-General for several years, so he naturally knew: This old fellow was in a terrible mood; he wanted to kill somebody!