Chapter 2791: "What a Loss, Indeed~"
The Silicon Lord's expression turned grim, "You ask, and I'm supposed to tell you?"
He hadn't wanted to reveal his hand—that was the Bose race's greatest trump card in the Thousand Stars Era. But to protect the main terminal, he had no choice but to expose it prematurely.
Especially since the Bose race would now know and inevitably tighten their defenses.
But he had no choice. Just now, the Silicon Lord couldn't afford to watch the main terminal be destroyed here.
And that Super Thermal Core was far too important to lose.
[┐￢～￢┌] "Hmph~ Nothing special. Just the latest model of an Ultimate Star Weapon."
Qian Li squinted, (≖益≖ꐦ) "You're trying to fool ghosts here? Ultimate Star Weapon? Ultimate Star Weapons don't have this kind of destructive power!"
The Silicon Lord's eyes widened:
[┐ಠ益ಠ┌] "I say it is, so it is. Believe it or not, this matter ends here!"
"My Silicon race will withdraw and compensate as agreed, and this incident is over. Jiangnan! I also hope you'll keep your promise and guard the secret."
"Otherwise, Starlight will bloom in the home star domains of the Carbon Alliance member races. That's a result neither you nor I want to see."
"Hold the red line, and we can still get by."
Without waiting for Jiangnan's reply, the Silicon Lord took his people and left. The matter of the Starlight was not further explained, simply attributed to an Ultimate Star Weapon.
But anyone with eyes could see—this was far from a simple Ultimate Star Weapon. The Silicon race still held a final trump card.
And the war between the Silicon race and the Carbon Alliance came to an end, concluding with the Silicon race's full withdrawal.
The Thousand Stars Era, which had been teetering on the edge of collapse, was once again pulled back by Jiangnan.
He had bought a little more time.
But Jiangnan knew clearly in his heart—there would never be a next time.
In the blink of an eye, only Jiangnan, Jiang Fan, and Qian Li remained on the scene.
Qian Li looked thoroughly disgusted. In the end, he hadn't managed to keep the Silicon main terminal. What was the source of that Starlight?
What other tricks did the Silicon race have? He'd have to watch out.
Still, this situation wasn't entirely unacceptable to Qian Li.
He didn't want to fight now either, since the Bose race was currently weakened internally due to Xun Zu's breakthrough, with no Star Devourer-level manpower to spare.
But the accounts weren't settled yet.
Qian Li's eyes turned sharp, fixed on Jiang Fan and Jiangnan.
(ꐦ･ˇ益ˇ･) "The Silicon matter is over. Now let's settle the score between my Bose race and you humans."
"That Jiang guy barged into my Bose star domain, tore things apart, slaughtered my Bose people like crazy, and even blew up the Eternal Star!"
"How do you plan to settle this? With human lives? This matter demands an explanation!"
Jiang Fan raised an eyebrow: (๑◔д◔ิ) "What? You think I didn't hit hard enough? Want me to make another trip to the Bose star domain?"
"I told you. You can't stop me."
Qian Li narrowed his eyes: (˶‾᷄⁻‾᷅˵) "If you want a fight, I'm game. You can go tear up the Bose star domain."
"But I can also take a trip to the Carbon Alliance, to the Milky Way Star Domain, and see who tears things apart faster. Want to compare whose moves are more powerful?"
Jiang Fan snorted coldly and was about to speak, but Jiangnan teleported in front of him, slung an arm around his shoulder, and grinned cheerfully:
(⌒̫⌒;) "Oh, come on~ Why fight and kill on a perfectly good day? Wrecking the flowers and grass would be such a shame."
"And besides, I already gave you the explanation you asked for."
Qian Li: ???
(ง･ˇ皿ˇ･)ง "When the hell did you give me any explanation? If you dare pull out that kind of translucent plastic tape roll, I'll go cut a thousand or eight hundred swords through the Milky Way Star Domain right now!"
Jiangnan waved his hand dismissively: (︶.̮︶〃)ﾉ "Nah~ How could I? Who plays such a lame joke anyway~"
Qian Li: (≖益≖ꐦ) "It's you! Who else? Where's my explanation?"
Jiangnan spread his hands: ╮(•́～•̀)╭ "Like I said, I already gave it to you. I told you the location of the Silicon main terminal proactively, and I didn't charge you."
"Isn't the value of that intel enough to cover your Bose race's losses? I could have asked for whatever price I wanted."
"You made a profit, you know? Just be happy in secret."
[From Qian Li: Resentment +1010!]
Pfft! You guys wrecked our home and killed our people, and I'm supposed to be happy?
(ꐦ▼益▼)☛ "Bullshit! Did I wreck it? Didn't the Silicon main terminal escape? And wasn't I helping you out? By your logic, I should charge you a service fee?"
Jiangnan waved dismissively: (｡･ˇ◠ˇ･) "No, no~ Ask any summoner across the starry sky—who pays their summoned beasts a salary? They all freeload."
"And besides, I gave you the intel. You were too incompetent to keep the main terminal, right? Can't blame the air conditioner for being too cold when you can't get it up? Does that make sense? No, it doesn't."
Qian Li's eyes bulged: (ꐦงథ益థ)ง "Oh, I swear! Don't hold me back! I'll flay you alive today!"
Jiangnan immediately pulled out the War Horn: Σ(((＞＞(･ˇ口ˇ･｡:)"Calm down! Calm down! Old perv, you don't want that little ball song to echo through the starry sky for three days and three nights, do you?"
Qian Li's forehead veins bulged as he rolled his eyes: (ꐦ꒪ͦཀ꒪ͦꐦ)
[From Qian Li: Resentment +1010!]
"This isn't over! Unless you tell me the exact location of the Silicon main terminal again, then this matter is settled!"
Jiangnan sighed in disappointment: (︶益︶〃) "You're this old and still acting like a kid? Don't you have any sense? If I just calmed things down, why would I tell you that?"
"Still, since you lost so much, I'll let those Bose prisoners in the Quality Prison, a few faction leaders and such, live a little better. I'll reduce the daily beating quantity to one-third. Consider that compensation for the Bose race's losses."
(｡･ˇ～ˇ･｡:) "Qian Li, don't push it! This is already my biggest concession! You only lost a few Bose bodies and had your star domain wrecked a bit, but me? I lost my beating quota!"
Qian Li: !!!
(ง;´༎ຶ益༎ຶ)ง "Ahhh! You little bastard! You... you..."
[From Qian Li: Resentment +1011!]
If you'd said you'd return the Bose prisoners to offset our losses, I wouldn't have said anything!
But you're just reducing the beating quantity? And I'm supposed to thank you?
Jiangnan stood with his hands on his hips, righteous: (ꐦ･ˇ～ˇ･) "What about me? Keep cursing, and I'll start shouting, you know~"
"Take the out, swallow your pride, and be done with it. What else do you want? What can you do to me?"
Qian Li's teeth were nearly ground to dust, tears in his eyes, the Glazed Horn on his head flashing again...
If I had the final say, I'd have already destroyed you all!
But at this moment, with the Bose race short on manpower and all affairs unfavorable, he had to swallow this bitter loss.
Everything waited until Xun Zu broke through and reorganized the Thousand Stars Era. The first thing to do was to crush you all!
"This debt! I'll remember! Just wait! Damn it, just wait!"
"Remember to reduce the beating quantity! You promised!"
With that final instruction, he vanished.
Jiangnan finally let out a sigh of relief: (〃︶3︶) "Huff~ Making me pay such a heavy price—what a loss!"
Yang Jian, watching the broadcast from afar, twitched his mouth.
What loss? You didn't pay a thing!
When you round it down, you basically beat them up for free and made them work as your summoned beast, right?
But the Bose race was being too docile, too easy to deal with.
This made Yang Jian wary.
At that moment, Black God watched the broadcast and grinned: (￢↼￢●) "See it? The fundamental difference between the two?"
Yang Jian was stunned, a hint of helplessness on his face.
Black God said lightly: "Maybe... that's the fundamental reason why one succeeded and the other didn't~"
He patted Yang Jian on the shoulder and disappeared.
The war fire that had pushed the era to the brink of collapse was finally extinguished by Jiangnan.
No one knew if this was a good thing or a bad thing.
Because every faction was brewing even bigger trump cards: the Bose race's Xun Zu, the Silicon race's mysterious Starlight, the Matter Alliance's little moves...
And the Carbon Alliance was brewing too.
Once they detonated, it would be a chaotic war that would overturn the entire starry sky.
Yet Jiangnan's eyes remained heavy.
Even after suffering such losses, the Bose race still gritted their teeth and endured.
This was completely unreasonable. They were holding back, waiting for something.
It was probably just as he had guessed—Xun Zu was about to break through, or was already in the process.
Even if they had lost the Cosmos Seed, it still had to come.
Given the situation, the time left was likely short.
Jiang Fan turned to Jiangnan: (￢_￢) "Really not going to fight? I sensed it—besides Qian Li, there's another old timer in the Bose race who hasn't shown himself."
"He should be at a critical moment in his cultivation and can't act freely. If we miss this opportunity..."
Jiangnan winced: (•́ω•̀٥) "So that's how it is... Well, better to suppress it. Xun Zu can't act freely, but that doesn't mean he can't act at all."
"The Carbon Alliance is far from ready. Starting a war now would cause too much loss. We might gain a little advantage, but the fundamental situation won't improve."
"Xun Zu will still break through. Better to use this time to prepare adequately. Besides, your main body is still stuck in the Absolute Final Black Hole, right?"
"If we can get it out, that counts as part of the preparation, doesn't it? Hehe~"
Jiang Fan didn't refute but nodded: "We can look into that later... We'll settle the accounts after."
Jiangnan grinned: (͡°͜ʖ͡°)✧ "Brother Fan? After coming back this time, we've been too busy fighting. You haven't been home to see, have you?"
"Come on, let's go home and take a look. It's changed a lot now. And that Origin Spark you left on the Moon—we lit it up. It helped a ton."
"The little kids at home would be thrilled if the figure from their history books suddenly jumped out alive."
"Come on, let's go home!"
Jiang Fan's deep eyes rarely showed a trace of confusion:
"Home... is it?"