"This is impossible! This is clearly a First-Order Spirit Weapon!"
Lilo was extremely puzzled, "How could it break through my Second-Order Force Armor's defense!"
Enduring the pain, he used his right hand to activate the secret patterns on his First-Order Force Weapons sword, splitting open the round blade disk with a single strike.
Clang!
The metal shield he held in his left hand dropped to the ground, emitting a crisp metallic clang.
"Escape!"
After splitting the round blade disk with one strike, Lilo now only wanted to escape, the faster the better!
Having learned from his previous mistake, this time he did not turn his back to Ender and the others, but instead faced them as he fled, so he could resist the Spirit Weapon's attacks.
"Lilo!"
Watching his companion lose an arm to the Spirit Weapon's round blade disk, the One-Eyed Man ignored his injuries and, enduring the Domain's restraint, drove his battle staff to smash towards Ender.
He knew that the young man with the tender face had just used a Spiritual Force weapon to attack; as long as he could hold him back, his companion could escape.
"Want to hurt the Captain? Have you asked me first!"
One of the team members surrounding the One-Eyed Man snorted coldly, blocking the battle staff's attack.
The other two continued to attack, adding two more deep wounds to the One-Eyed Man!
Pfft!
The One-Eyed Man spat out a mouthful of fresh blood; his injuries were too severe, and he was quickly losing his ability to hold on.
"Die!"
Another team member held his sword with both hands, the lightning Gene Energy driving the secret patterns on the Force Weapons, and amidst the flashing electricity, he slashed the One-Eyed Man's neck with a single sword strike!
Thud!
Blood splattered as the One-Eyed Man's head was severed, his body and head separated!
"Finally dead!"
The team member who had cut off the One-Eyed Man's head let out a sigh of relief, "This guy's body is really tough!"
Another team member said, "It's a good thing we had the Captain's Domain restraint and suppression, otherwise it would have been very difficult to kill him!"
The three nodded; this One-Eyed Man was quite troublesome, his body was exceptionally tough, and he had a Second-Order Force Weapons on him, so it would have been difficult for them to kill him alone, because he could escape!
But with Captain Ender's Domain restraint and suppression, which drastically reduced his speed and prevented him from escaping, it gave them the opportunity to kill him.
"Captain!"
After killing the One-Eyed Man, the three looked at Ender, seeing him pursuing the remaining enemy with his Spirit Weapon.
Because the opponent had rich combat experience and was prepared, Ender's round blade disk could no longer achieve any results, its attacks merely being deflected by the battle sword.
"Chase!"
Ender uttered a single word, withdrew his Domain, and chased after the fleeing Lilo.
The female team member had also been attacking with Spiritual Energy flying knives, but unfortunately, the B9-grade metal Spiritual Energy flying knives had limited power and could hardly harm Lilo, who was wearing a Second-Order Force Armor.
"Bastard!"
Seeing the four opponents kill his sworn brother and then chase after him, Lilo knew it would be very difficult for him to escape.
"Aren't you here to investigate smuggling, for this batch of goods?"
But he was unwilling to surrender, so an evil thought arose in his mind, "Then I'll lead you to destroy this batch of goods!"
No longer solely focused on escaping, Lilo, relying on his knowledge of the smuggling spaceship, darted into one room and then out of another, making it difficult for Ender and the others to catch up for a time.
Finally, led by Lilo, Ender and the others pursued him into the lower cargo hold.
Upon entering the cargo hold, Ender felt a chill; it turned out that the lower cargo hold was a low-temperature environment.
He saw many shelves neatly arranged in the cargo hold, and a quick glance told him that one row of shelves was over a thousand meters long!
Ender looked at the cold-emitting shelves, on which layers of metal boxes were placed, each box approximately 2.5 meters long and 1.5 meters high and wide.
"This is...?"
Looking at these metal boxes, he had a bad premonition! Bang!
Suddenly, a loud noise came from somewhere.
Whoosh!
Ender and the others flashed, quickly flying towards the direction of the loud noise.
When they arrived, they found that the tall, thin smuggling crew member Lilo was standing in the middle of a row of shelves, striking a metal box with the Force Weapons sword in his right hand.
Bang!
Seeing Ender and the others arrive after hearing the sound, Lilo struck again, then showed a cold smile and said, "You've finally come!"
Ender said in a deep voice, "You can't escape!"
"Yes! I can't escape! Because there's a Domain expert among you!"
Lilo's smile turned somewhat sinister, "So I'm not planning to escape anymore!"
Looking at Lilo's smile, Ender and the others felt a bad premonition; had they fallen into a trap?
Lilo's face grew increasingly sinister, "Aren't you people from the Molten Rock Empire's Mad Dog Inspection Department?"
He thrust the Force Weapons sword in his right hand into the metal box he had just struck, and with a "sizzle" sound, the metal box was pierced through; then he pulled the Force Weapons sword, creating a long gash in the metal box.
"Don't you want this batch of goods?"
Lilo roared with a distorted face, letting go of the Force Weapons sword with his right hand and directly tearing apart the metal box with the gash, then dragging out a cold, humanoid object from inside!
"That is! A person!"
Ender's eyes widened, "This smuggling ship is smuggling people!"
He saw clearly that the humanoid object was a person, a person who was frozen but still had Vitality!
"So, this smuggling ship is involved in slave smuggling."
One team member murmured to himself, "No wonder the Molten Rock Empire's Inspection Department directly launched a boarding operation instead of issuing an inspection notice first!"
"Don't you want to save them?"
Lilo roared madly, "Can you still save him now!"
Raising his fist, Lilo smashed the person he had dragged out with one punch, sending ice shards and severed limbs flying!
"Damn it!"
Seeing Lilo kill someone right in front of him, and a frozen person who was completely defenseless at that, Ender's anger flared!
"Die for me!"
Ender roared, his Spiritual Force surging madly towards Lilo's brain.
As a Stellar Level Six Spiritual Master with a 32-fold life gene level, his Spiritual Force was exceptionally powerful, even stronger than a Stellar Ninth Order Spiritual Master!
The powerful Spiritual Force surged into Lilo's brain, and the latter, being only a Stellar Level 4 Martial Artist, was directly severely injured by such a powerful Spiritual Force impact.
Bang!
Lilo's brain was injured, and he fell backward in a daze, his eyes vacant.
"Die!"
Ender roared again, his Divine Thought driving the Heavy Defense Disk to reassemble into a round blade disk, which spun and cut towards Lilo's head on the ground!
Buzz!
The round blade disk cut through Lilo's head, instantly killing him, his body and head separated!
After killing Lilo, Ender's anger gradually subsided.
Looking at the dense, thousands of metal boxes, he felt a lump in his throat, a sickening feeling!
He had read "Swallowed Star" and knew that the Universe was cruel, but when he actually saw thousands of people being smuggled and sold as slaves, his heart still felt heavy!
This was something he had seen with his own eyes, not just read about in a book!
It was like in his previous life on Earth, he knew that the world had never been peaceful, but when wars happened, he could treat them as news.
Because he lived in a peaceful country and could not personally witness or experience the cruelty of war!
But now, he was experiencing the cruelty of the Universe!
Chapter 58: Special and Settlement of Molten Rock Empire
One of the team members noticed Ender's unusual expression and asked with concern, "Captain?"
"I'm fine."
Ender came back to his senses, took a deep breath, and said, "Continue to act according to the combat plan and clear the lower cargo hold."
The team members nodded, "Yes."
Ender and the others searched for enemies, sweeping through the lower cargo hold, but found no other smuggler crew members.
From a still-warm drink, it seemed the smuggler crew members in the lower cargo hold had all fled, and not long ago.
According to the combat plan, after clearing the lower cargo hold, they were to remain on standby there, awaiting orders from the Scout team.
So, they stayed in the rest area of the lower cargo hold, from where they could see the entire situation in the lower cargo hold.
Ender sat on the ground, looking up at the neatly arranged shelves on the light screen, feeling somewhat unsettled.
"Captain, is this your first time seeing such a scene?"
The only female team member was very observant; seeing Ender staring blankly at the dense rows of freezers, she knew it was his first time witnessing slave trade.
Ender turned his head, "What?"
The female team member pointed to the neat shelves on the light screen, "Slave trade."
Ender nodded slightly, "Yes, it's the first time I've seen it."
The female team member asked curiously, "Captain, are you from the Molten Rock Empire?"
"Mm."
Ender nodded, then asked, "Does that matter?"
"If Captain, you weren't from the Molten Rock Empire, then it would be impossible for this to be your first time seeing slave trade."
Another team member explained, "For example, in the intermediate universe country I come from, slave trade is an industry many Families participate in. I was even taken to observe slave transactions before I was an adult."
Saying this, the team member shook his head, "The first time I saw it, I was pretty much like Captain, but after seeing it more often, I became numb."
"The Molten Rock Empire is different from the surrounding intermediate Universe countries; slave trade is forbidden here."
The team member continued, "The Emperor of an intermediate universe country holds immense power. The law against slave trade enacted by Emperor Molten Rock leaves no room for slave-catching teams to survive within the Molten Rock Empire.
"But the more something is forbidden, the more people desire to possess it, especially for those with extremely high status and power. Possessing what others cannot brings them immense pleasure!
"And where there's demand, there's supply!"
The team member pointed to the light screen and said, "Take the Phantom Wing Clan inside, for example. An Apprentice-level Phantom Wing Clan slave in other intermediate Universe countries where slave trade is not forbidden would sell for a hundred molten rock coin at most, which is already very, very high!
"But if this Apprentice-level Phantom Wing Clan is smuggled into the Molten Rock Empire, the price can reach thousands or even tens of thousands of molten rock coin!"
The team member shook his head and said, "A price difference of tens or even hundreds of times—the profit in this is too great!"
Ender fell silent. He knew that when profit reached a certain level, it truly made people disregard the danger to their lives!
"Captain, the Universe is just that cruel; we can't change it!"
At this moment, the female team member comforted him, "But we can become strong to protect our Family, and that's the only thing we can do."
Ender nodded, "I understand."
He understood these principles, and this was also his resolve to become stronger!
"To be honest, I greatly admire Emperor Molten Rock!"
The team member suddenly said, "He is not a great Immortal, but to be able to establish the Molten Rock Empire as a World Master is truly remarkable!"
"What?"
Ender's eyes widened, somewhat surprised, "Your Majesty Emperor Molten Rock is not an Immortal?"
"Hmm, Captain, you didn't know?"
The team member was puzzled, "Your Majesty Emperor Molten Rock is a World Master; this isn't a big secret."
Ender recalled Emperor Molten Rock he had seen and shook his head, "I always thought Your Majesty Emperor Molten Rock was an Immortal."
"Perhaps Captain was misled."
The female team member said, "Your Majesty Emperor Molten Rock once directly defeated an Immortal, so He is often mistakenly believed to be an Immortal by those who don't know the truth."
"Directly defeated an Immortal!"
Ender was somewhat alarmed. "If I remember correctly, many World Masters in the Extraterritorial Battlefield who are evaluated as elite World Master Generals can mostly only briefly engage with Immortal Military Lords, and those who can match them are few and far between, let alone defeat them!
"To be able to directly defeat an Immortal, this is already a top-tier expert among World Masters, only slightly inferior to the Geniuses cultivated by the five Leviathans of Humanity."
"That's certainly possible."
The team member nodded and did not continue the topic.
The reason they discussed these things was to comfort their young Captain and to befriend this Planetary Level Domain-level Genius.
Now that their goal was achieved, they naturally said no more, understanding that too many words lead to mistakes.
Not long after their conversation ended, the Empire Scout Captain sent a message: all crew members of the smuggling ship had been cleared out, and the Universe Level captain among them was dealt with by the Universe Level instructor leading the team.
Upon returning to the Scout ship, Ender and the others learned that the smuggling spacecraft would be handled by a specific department, and the slaves on board would be arranged to live on life planets within the Empire.
Ender secretly nodded at this arrangement; these slaves living in the Molten Rock Empire would be far better off than being sent back to their hometowns!
After completing this crackdown on the smuggling ship, the Scout ship set sail again, continuing its Scout mission against smuggling.
As the term for this Scout mission ended, Ender and the others completed this trial mission.
"It's finally over."
On the spaceship returning to the Sand Sea Stellar Cultivation Camp, Ender looked at the light screen in front of him and murmured, "I wonder how many points I'll get for this trial mission."
Because Scout missions are prone to unexpected incidents, point rewards are settled after the mission is completed.
And at this moment, the point settlement had been released!
"Ender Royce's points obtained from completing the Scout mission are as follows.
"Scout mission basic reward, 60 points.
"Scout mission unexpected reward, 30 points.
"Served as Captain, no team member deaths, gained 20 points.
"Empire Scout Department evaluated as perfect! Additional reward of 30 points.
"Total points obtained for this Scout mission: 140 points!"
Looking at the points obtained from this trial mission, Ender was somewhat surprised. "140 points, that much?"
Not long ago, an old student had estimated the point rewards for this Scout mission based on previous mission experiences.
Because this trial mission went relatively smoothly, the unexpected reward points wouldn't be much, and even for a captain with no casualties, it was estimated to be around 110 points.
But Ender received far more points than estimated, getting as many as 140 points!
"Hmm."
He found the reason his points exceeded the estimate: "The Empire Scout Department evaluated it as perfect, with an additional reward of 30 points."
If these 30 points were removed, then his points would be similar to the old student's estimate.
Ender was puzzled, "Why was the Empire Scout Department's evaluation of me 'perfect'?"
In this trial mission, he didn't perform particularly outstandingly; he only killed a Stellar Level 4 Martial Artist, so how did he get a perfect evaluation?