Chapter 2669: Lord Xianguo, Such a Selfless Act!
As a Star Devourer of the Celestial Star Race, how could he just stand by and watch his clansmen be humiliated like this?
Even if you killed them swiftly and cleanly, that would be one thing!
Since the birth of the Celestial Star Race, they had never suffered such a humiliating, suffocating affront!
How could Mailiushi hold back any longer?
He was about to strike!
Noah, however, got all excited: (˵ಡ▿ಡ)“Ooh la la~ You wanna make a move? The moment you interfere in this Sea of Star Embers battle situation, the Celestial Star Race gets a red card and is disqualified!”
“The Bose Race is the big brother—they can get away with breaking the rules. Can your Celestial Star Race do the same?”
“If you want to act, go right ahead. I won’t stop you. But even if you do step in, it won’t change anything, right?”
Noah was a master of passive-aggressive sarcasm from the get-go!
The faces of Qian Li and Mailiushi both turned grim!
Chen Mu grabbed Mailiushi firmly:
꒰⸝°᷄益°᷅ꐦ⸝⸝꒱“Calm down! We’ve already taken heavy losses this time. We can’t afford any more!”
Mailiushi ground his teeth nearly to dust: “How can you expect me to stay calm? Do you think they’re kicking a ball out there?”
“They’re kicking the face of my Celestial Star Race!”
“Xianguo! Use whatever means you have to make Jiangnan and his crew stop this absurd ‘Great Strength Cup’ immediately!”
Xianguo was also shaking with anger and frustration, but his face was full of helplessness.
How am I supposed to make him stop?
If I go in there, I’ll end up getting kicked too, won’t I?
Xianguo said urgently: “Jiangnan! Can’t we discuss this again? Don’t push things to the extreme. Is there any possibility that people from your Carbon Alliance could end up in our hands?”
“Stop this right now! We can talk things over!”
Jiangnan was busy working up a sweat, kicking the Heiyan Star away with one foot and passing it to Wang Youzhi.
(˵¯͒～¯͒˵)“Nothing to discuss. I’ve already stated my terms.”
“Until I see the goods, the Great Strength Cup isn’t ending. My brothers are having a blast kicking away!”
“If you keep dragging this out, we might just finish the preliminaries and move on to the knockout rounds or something!”
Xianguo exploded on the spot. They’re even going to have knockout rounds?
Then won’t those guys end up with shoe-print tattoos all over their faces?
(งஇ益இ)ง“Ten base planets in exchange for one Celestial Star clansman? That’s way too much! And we don’t even have that many on hand!”
“Can’t you propose something reasonable?”
Jiangnan shrugged indifferently:
ʅ(･´‸･｀)ʃ“That’s your problem to figure out. What does it have to do with me, Ball King Jiang? Why don’t you go ask your big brother?”
“Stop bothering me. I’m playing ball here—match point already!”
Xianguo was so angry he was rolling his eyes. At this rate, the Celestial Star Race would lose face completely!
With no other choice, he contacted Gang Xiu.
“This is the situation. Can you at least return part of our base planets so we can use them to ransom our people?”
“I guarantee that afterwards we’ll earn it back and make up for the losses. Right now, the most critical thing is to stop that damned Great Strength Cup!”
But Gang Xiu’s expression remained unchanged.
[┐≖_≖┌]“The Silicon race does not support this action by the Celestial Star Race, nor will it return base planets to you for ransom, thereby supplying the enemy.”
“The combined value of those prisoners doesn’t equal the strategic worth of a single base planet. What use are they?”
Xianguo said anxiously: “But the entire starry sky is watching us make fools of ourselves. The face of my Celestial Star Race…”
Before he could finish, Gang Xiu interrupted:
[┐￢_￢┌]“Face can’t be eaten. Once a base planet falls into Jiangnan’s hands, it’s like throwing meat buns at a dog. I don’t think you have the strength to take them back.”
Xianguo’s eyes blazed: “Then can’t I use our own base planets to trade? We earned them with hard work during the Cosmos Grand Hunt—we should have the right to dispose of them!”
“Don’t just stand there watching. Say something for me, won’t you?”
But at that moment, the gazes of Mingsha and the others all began to waver.
Guqiong said earnestly:
꒰⸝⸝ˇ～ˇ⸝⸝꒱“Calm down. You’ve already lost face. What use is it to trade base planets now? Wouldn’t that just be giving Jiangnan an advantage?”
Mingsha nodded: ꒰⸝⸝͡°_͡°⸝⸝꒱“Besides… how many base planets would you need to spend to ransom them all? All of us in the Matter Alliance share the points pool.”
“You can’t use everyone’s points to ransom your people, can you? What would the other members think?”
“Even if it were our own clansmen suffering this torment, I believe they would understand.”
Xianguo’s eyes were red with rage.
But right now, it’s our people being kicked around like balls! Your hypotheticals are useless!
“Fine! You’re all just great!”
He went around asking, but couldn’t get any results at all!
Jiangnan cackled with glee:
(˵՞⥎՞)“Having a fight? Good! Keep quarreling! I’d love to see you come to blows~”
Xianguo’s resentment meter had already reached ghost-level multipliers!
So he just gave up completely.
“Jiangnan! You’re not getting any base planets! Not a single one! If you’ve got the guts, kick them all to death! Then you’ll end up with nothing in the end!”
“How about changing the terms? My race can offer resources…”
Before he could finish, Jiangnan slapped his thigh:
(͡°͜ʖ͡°)✧“Brother, you’re so straightforward! I like planets that are loyal and don’t abandon their own! Your spirit moves me!”
“I agree! The Celestial Star Race can use resources to ransom the prisoners. As for the specific price, please move to the negotiation zone at the Star Ember Tower for detailed talks, okay?”
“However, in the end, my Carbon Alliance is still making a concession. Until the price is fully settled and the resources are in hand, the Great Strength Cup will not end!”
“Once negotiations are done and the goods arrive, we’ll release the prisoners immediately. Don’t worry, we know how to control our kicks—we won’t just kick them to death for fun!”
Xianguo was boiling with fury. I was begging you to kick them to death just now!
If you were willing to accept resource ransoms all along, why didn’t you say so earlier?
Yang Jian swallowed hard. Gotta say, Jiangnan was truly vicious.
It seemed that from the very beginning, he never expected to actually swindle base planets from the Matter Alliance.
After all, the Silicon race, which prioritized profit above all else, would absolutely never agree to that.
But the reason he held out until now was to create discord within the Matter Alliance, to make them lose cohesion.
Don’t underestimate that little crack—it might eventually expand into a fissure big enough to collapse the entire Matter Alliance.
The Carbon Alliance immediately sent Yang Jian, Yao Hong, and their team to the negotiation zone to discuss the ransom terms.
Yang Jian didn’t need much introduction—cunning as a fox. And Yao Hong was the woman who could even squeeze out Jiangnan’s marriage fund.
When it came to extorting money, she was a pro.
Ai Jiang immediately sent a message: “We’ve compiled a list of scarce resources needed for the next stage of humanity’s Lingxiao Plan. We can take this opportunity to bleed the Celestial Star Race dry.”
“Furthermore, based on comprehensive data such as the scale of the Celestial Star Race’s industries and their total capital reserves, we’ve analyzed their bottom-line price.”
“Please do your best to rake it in, everyone. Building wealth and marching toward prosperity starts right now~”
Yang Jian’s eye twitched. How thoughtful could you get?
He couldn’t help but recall Jiangnan’s bold declaration before the match—that through this Sequence War, he would thicken humanity’s war chest by five to seven times.
Seems like it wasn’t just hot air.
He was really putting it into action.
In the negotiation zone, the Human faction sat face-to-face with the Celestial Star delegation. Yang Jian fully embraced the spirit of asking for the moon, his mouth blacker than pitch.
Everything: rare metals, spiritual treasures, energy crystals, star source energy blocks, even slave species!
Some items were things the Celestial Star Race didn’t even possess themselves. They would have to find ways to use their connections to trade with other races.
But no matter how ancient and wealthy the Celestial Star Race was—being one of the top ten sequences—Xianguo still had his face turned green by the negotiations. He cursed and broke down emotionally multiple times.
He wished those ball-shaped prisoners would just get kicked to death on the spot, so he wouldn’t have to redeem them.
But he couldn’t just redeem part of them—he had to take all of them.
Otherwise, wouldn’t that break the hearts of his clansmen?
The entire starry sky was watching.
All Xianguo wanted now was to get this over with quickly and end that damned soccer match.
While Yang Jian and his team were still negotiating, Jiangnan’s match continued.
They had already reached the round of 32.
At this moment, the Matter Alliance soldiers watched the scene and silently swore deadly oaths.
I would rather die on the battlefield, blow myself up on the spot, than ever fall into the Carbon Alliance’s hands as a prisoner!
Those guys aren’t even human, are they?
At the same time, they developed a strong interest in the Starry Sky Great Strength Cup competition, even feeling a bit eager to try it out.
More than a few gazes involuntarily fell on their own Celestial Star clansmen.
In the entire starry sky, there probably weren’t many planets as tough and kick-resistant as the Celestial Star Race, right?
The Celestial Star warriors felt a chill run down their spines at being stared at.
⍨⃝٥“W-why are you all looking at us like that?”
The Matter Alliance soldiers scratched their heads awkwardly.
(⌒ㅂ⌒;)୨“Ahaha~ Nothing, just looking.”
But they couldn’t help swallowing. If they kicked one… it should feel pretty good underfoot, right?
Yang Jian’s side finally settled on a price. The Celestial Star Race dumped massive amounts of resources directly from outside into the Dimensional Gap.
That meant they had officially handed them over to humanity.
At this moment, Yang Jian’s face was glowing red. Just from his expression, you could tell the haul was enormous.
Yang Jian stood up and clasped his fist respectfully:
(˵¯͒╰╯¯͒˵)“Lord Xianguo, such a selfless act! Truly righteous! The starry sky needs more loyal and righteous planets like you!”
“I hope we can continue cooperating next time!”
Xianguo:!!!
Next time? You want a next time? My heart is bleeding!
“Cut the crap! Release the prisoners immediately!”
Jiangnan and his team were almost at the semifinals. Seeing that the deal was done, they had no choice but to reluctantly wrap up the match and release the planets.
One by one, the Celestial Star planets—faces covered in craters, cracks, and collapsed continental shelves—huddled together, crying as they were let out of the moat.
Disgrace! This was utter disgrace!
Heiyan Star even felt like he had been swollen from all the kicking.
The moment they left the Styx River force field, he burst into tears, and at the same time regained his power.
He turned back with bitter hatred:
(⚆།益⚆།Ϡ)“Jiangnan! The shame of this day…”
Jiangnan waved his hand dismissively:
(｡･ˇ～ˇ･)ﾉ“Not leaving yet? Believe me, I’ll catch you again and make you play in the semifinals?”
Heiyan Star experienced a magnitude-12 earthquake, his star body trembled, and he rolled away: “Ah… it is what it is!”
Meanwhile, Gangyu, who was still hiding in the core storage area, wanted to die.
Aaaah! If I had known we could be ransomed back, why the hell did I keep pretending?
Now I’m screwed—I’ve been left behind!
This… this is a total Barbie-Q, isn’t it?