Chapter 1853: The Chessboard
In the Star Palace meeting room, everyone sat on soft, comfortable stools around the long, narrow conference table.
The chairs continuously emitted bioelectricity, relieving everyone's fatigue after the great battle, and even had a massage function!
They were even better than a tattered-clothed young lady, and everyone wore expressions of pure enjoyment!
Piers was practically melting:
(◞⁼̴ꇴ⁼̴) "This alien technology is seriously impressive, huh? Even sitting on a stool is this enjoyable!"
"How much does this stool cost? I'll buy it from you!"
Jiangnan glared: (ง•̀皿•́)ง "Bah! I haven't even charged you by the minute for the massage, and you want to buy my stool? Dream on, you've got snot bubbles of beauty, haven't you?"
Piers's face darkened. Good grief, now he wouldn't sell it even if offered money?
Everyone looked around the meeting room with a mixture of emotions, full of novelty and wonder.
Odin sighed: "I never thought we'd be holding a meeting in the enemy's lair base one day. This wave is way too smooth!"
Freya chuckled:
(•́.̫•̀) "Nonsense! This is clearly Boss Nan's home now!"
Jiangnan: (͡°͜ʖ͡°)☛ "I like hearing that, oh!"
"Sister Bingbing, can you stop drooling already? The cleaning robot is exhausted too, you know?"
Just then, Li Bing kept wandering around the meeting room, looking left and right, drooling everywhere!
A tiny cleaning robot with a crying face followed behind Li Bing with a small brush, sweeping non-stop!
Li Bing's pretty face flushed with excitement:
٩(º﹃º٩) "Hehe～ Honey, you guys go ahead with the meeting. I'm off to pick my own room first!"
With that, she vanished in a flash.
Xia Yao looked wary. Hey hey hey, is Sister Bingbing serious? Is she actually going to marry him?
Yang Jian smiled knowingly, then spoke up: "Alright, this round of the God-Slaying War has cost us heavily, but we've also heavily damaged the Sacred Star!"
"From the beginning of the spiritual energy revival until now, we've never felt this triumphant!"
"I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts on the next move."
At that moment, everyone's gaze focused on Jiangnan.
Without his contributions, achieving such brilliant results would have been impossible.
With the bearing of a Star Glory, he had reached the peak of power, even able to intervene in Transcendent-level battles, killing multiple Bose bodies and turning the tide.
He had even brought back all the spirit beasts from the Void Sea, including five space-type Dao Heaven beasts.
If Jiangnan and Li Mingshan hadn't been in this battle, it was hard to imagine what the outcome would have been.
Sometimes, the deciding factor that tips the scales of victory is that one or two extra weights.
Now, Jiangnan had become the absolute core of the God-Slaying War.
Even in this meeting, he sat unceremoniously in the main seat, and no one objected.
Piers laughed heartily:
(◞ᵔᗜᵔ) "What to do? Isn't it obvious? Of course we press the advantage and find a way to kill Carl!"
"That way, we win, the situation on Blue Star stabilizes, and from then on, it's all good days!"
Barti grinned fiercely: "Strike while the enemy is weak, finish them off—that's a fine tradition of us humans!"
"In one breath! Overthrow the Sacred Star and win decisively!"
The conference table buzzed with excitement, everyone clamoring to take down the Sacred Star. This stage victory had given them immense confidence.
But at that moment, Jiangnan spoke.
"It's not that I want to dampen the mood, but does everyone think this battle was too simple?"
The room fell silent, everyone startled.
Jiangnan took a deep breath: "Carl cannot be killed now. Even if we had the means to kill him, we can't."
"Not to mention, we don't have that means yet."
The crowd was puzzled. Not kill? That didn't seem like Boss Nan's style.
He usually bullied the enemy when they were down, so why now?
Yang Jian nodded: "Indeed, we can't act rashly. Jiangnan, explain to everyone."
Jiangnan's expression darkened: "Is killing Carl really winning? We're not fighting Carl."
"We're fighting the Sacred Star, the deeply entrenched Bose race, and this damnable game's rules."
"Why did the humans repel the Sacred Star's invasion in the first three God-Slaying Wars but fail to win? Isn't that clear enough?"
"We don't just want a battle we can't lose. We want a victory we've never tasted in over three thousand years."
No one spoke. Jiangnan's words mercilessly dragged their minds back from the high of the stage victory to reality.
Bai Kou spoke: "Jiangnan is right. Even if we exterminate every Bose body on Blue Star, we still won't win."
"We're facing the massive Sacred Star. And we remain powerless against it. We're the chopping block, and they are the knife."
Jiangning rubbed her temples: "That's the real trouble. The Sacred Star is acting behind the Ten Thousand Races Accord."
"Because they fear being discovered by the myriad races, they operate in secret, playing within the rules."
"The Sacred Star's true strength is far beyond what you've seen. Carl may have the title of Star of the Multitudes, but his power isn't the strongest."
"There are Star-Breaker level Bose bodies with planet-destroyer capabilities among them."
The faces of everyone in the meeting room darkened.
Piers' scalp tingled:
∑(°口°◟) "Planet destroyer? You mean the power to destroy a planet in one strike?"
Jiangning nodded: "A Star-Breaker level expert with the ability to destroy a planet is given the title of Planet Destroyer."
"Blue Star isn't that big. A powerful Planet Destroyer could even blow up a star."
"And above Star-Breaker is Star-Devourer. Those at that level are top-tier big shots under the starry sky. Their abilities are beyond human imagination."
Human Transcendent level is their own term; the outside world generally calls those who can leave their mother star and roam the stars Star-Breaker level.
Barti swallowed, half-joking:
(‧̣̥̇･᷄ㅂ･᷅) "No way? Star-Devourer? They wouldn't have the power to annihilate an entire galaxy, would they?"
Jiangning nodded: "Yes, but not a small system like the Solar System. Something like the Milky Way."
Magician: (๑ʘ̅3ʘ̅)!!! "Pfft—"
He sprayed tea all over Piers's face.
The gap between Star-Breaker and Star-Devourer is that huge?
Odin's forehead dripped cold sweat:
=͟͟͞͞(꒪﹏꒪‧̣̥̇) "Star-Devourer... does the Bose race have them too?"
Jiangning nodded: "Yes. As a starry sky overlord, having at least one Star-Devourer big shot is the bare minimum, and there's more than one."
"But such beings are unreachable, the true power brokers under the starry sky."
Piers smiled bitterly: "How the hell are we supposed to fight this?"
Although humanity had produced four Star-Breaker level experts, compared to alien civilizations that had developed for billions of years, they were pathetically weak.
They hadn't even stepped onto the starry sky stage.
Jiangnan leaned on the table: "It's simple. It's like playing a game of chess. This chessboard has its own rules."
"We are the white pieces, the Sacred Star are the black pieces. On the board right now, we have an absolute advantage."
"But the problem is, we are just pieces. There's no one behind us. Behind the black pieces, however, sit the players."
"Under the game's rules, we can still fight on the board. But once we eat up all the black pieces cleanly..."
"If you were the Sacred Star, the Bose race, and your black pieces were all gone, what would you do?"
Odin smiled bitterly: "Send in stronger black pieces to eat up the white pieces."
"Or, if pushed to the limit, just crush the white pieces directly, or even flip the whole damn board."
"Because the people sitting behind are the ones who set the rules. They can do whatever they want."
Jiangning said gravely: "This Ten Thousand Races Accord is the rule of the chess game. Although it restricts humanity, in a sense, it also protects us."
"As for Blue Star, it's the chessboard. The black pieces have someone behind them; the white pieces belonging to humanity have no one."
Everyone wore bitter expressions.
Wang Dalei slammed the table in anger: "This is so unfair! In the previous God-Slaying Wars, when all the black pieces were eliminated, they just covered the chessboard and stopped playing, right?"
Hence the Spirit-Sealing Curse Array, the world devoid of spirits.
Yang Jian's face darkened: "But this time, they won't choose to cover the board again."
Jiangnan narrowed his eyes: "Now, do you still want to eliminate all the black pieces?"
Everyone shook their heads. In war, the most important thing is to see the situation clearly, to understand your own predicament. Otherwise, you won't even know how you died.
Jiangnan said calmly: "So Carl cannot be killed, at least not now. Although we have the advantage, we can't push too hard."
"We can't provoke the player behind the pieces. If they get angry, they'll flip the board."
"If Carl dies, the Sacred Star's layout on Blue Star will collapse completely. If they lose their temper and ignore the Ten Thousand Races Accord, sending even stronger Star-Breaker level forces, or directly crushing Blue Star, we're done."
"We need to make them continue playing under the rules. At least for now, the rules favor us. We must use every power we can."
Odin asked anxiously: "But then how can we win? Pieces will always be pieces."
Jiangnan narrowed his eyes: "Then let humanity become someone else's piece. If there's no one behind us, we find someone to sit behind us, at least to avoid getting the board flipped."
"Before we have the means to contend with or threaten the player, what we need to do is accumulate strength."
"Survive in the cracks, grow. That's the only way to win this war."
Uncle Li's dying guidance made Jiangnan see clearly the path humanity's future should take.
Ride the east wind, plot with the tiger. The most important thing is to survive first.
Becoming someone else's piece may sound humiliating, but it's not actually so.
Remember, no one will laugh at someone who gives it their all.