Buy The Marshal Omega Chapter 3
byHearing Lucas’s invitation, Lu Rong did not answer immediately. He closed the manual and handed it back to Lucas. “You seem very keen on me seeing him?”
Lucas faltered for a moment. Lu Rong continued, “Isn’t the Alliance afraid that Feinier’s people will come to rescue him?”
“No one is coming for him anymore, Mr. Lu,” Lucas said, shaking his head.
Lu Rong looked at him.
Lucas explained further, “When he sent the Queen and the Prince away, the jump coordinates he set were extremely distant. The Alliance speculates he sent them to the A-rank planet, Planet A311. Once there, it is very difficult to return, but it is essentially the same as receiving a life-saving immunity card.”
Lu Rong had also heard of the famous Planet A311.
That was Planet Cain, known as the origin of the Feathered Serpents. Even the founding emperor of the Empire had come from Planet Cain. As an A-rank planet, its economic, military, and technological developments were top-tier. No one dared to provoke it, and it was one of several independent autonomous planets not under the Empire’s jurisdiction.
However, as an autonomous planet, Planet Cain remained neutral and did not participate in any interstellar conflicts. Anyone involved in such conflicts had to leave Planet Cain; for instance, the founding emperor of the Empire had voluntarily renounced his citizenship there.
Correspondingly, those with Feathered Serpent blood who wished to return had to abandon all power and status and could not involve themselves in interstellar disputes. This had become a well-established convention.
The Queen and Prince of Kulkulkan both possessed Feathered Serpent blood. As long as they abandoned their titles, refrained from any actions to restore the Empire, and did not attempt to rescue Feinier, Planet Cain would naturally take them in.
The Alliance feared the power of Planet Cain and did not dare demand hostages. At the same time, this meant that no one would come back for Feinier.
“Those autonomous planets are local tyrants, and their information frequencies are not shared. The people there can’t contact us. Furthermore, Feinier’s personal guards were killed on the spot at the time—not a single survivor was left. Feinier is isolated and without help; he has been abandoned,” Lucas concluded, sighing with a touch of melancholy.
Lu Rong stood by the display case, staring at the neatly arranged Star Cores in silence. Lucas sensed the low atmospheric pressure surrounding him and, unsure if he had offended Lu Rong, did not dare to speak for a moment.
Fortunately, a sudden communication chime saved Lucas. He turned away for a brief call, and after confirming the details, he looked at Lu Rong with a smile. “Mr. Lu, the auction for Item 07 is about to begin. Will you be attending in person, or will you continue to have your assistant handle it for you?”
Lu Rong returned to reality from his thoughts. His gaze fell upon the Star Cores as he answered Lucas, “Let the assistant handle it.”
Lucas immediately relayed Lu Rong’s request and then looked back at him. “Are there any other items you are interested in? I can take you to see anything else.”
Lu Rong placed a hand on the radiation shield of a Star Core. He thought deeply for a long time before tapping the transparent surface with his fingertip. “You said he only revealed the locations of some of the Star Cores?”
It took Lucas a moment to realize what Lu Rong meant. He nodded. “Yes. The Alliance even used memory capture. The Feathered Serpents are likely different from ordinary people; we could only obtain that small amount of information.”
“So, you turned him into an… ‘Immortal Flower’ and put him up for auction here.” Lu Rong withdrew his hand and shoved both hands into his pockets, a strange smile appearing on his face.
In the back of his mind, X01 sensed something odd in Lu Rong’s attitude. “…Is there a problem?”
Lu Rong replied, “The Alliance isn’t so desperate for money that they need to sell prisoners. This feels like bait.”
But he couldn’t find the significance of placing this bait here.
“Lucas.” Lu Rong looked down at the man.
The tiny Blue Morpho butterfly was still resting on Lucas’s gland, exerting its influence of suggestion and hypnosis. Lucas felt an inexplicable chill on the back of his neck and was about to reach for it when Lu Rong smiled and said, “I want to go see Item 10.”
X01 blurted out, “Oh, are you going to save him?”
Lu Rong said lazily, “No.”
X01 hesitated. “The data I just checked says this ‘Immortal Flower’ state is irreversible. It’s no different from being a vegetable.”
Lu Rong said, “I just want to see if I can still squeeze out some information regarding the whereabouts of the Star Cores.”
X01 did not answer because he felt something was wrong. He felt as if he had seen this plot before.
Back when Lu Rong had led an army to find Feinier, X01 had also asked if he was going to save him. Lu Rong had refused just as decisively, saying he was only going to see if he could gain some profit, yet he had still intervened in the end. But this time, Lu Rong mentioned the Star Cores. X01 knew Lu Rong’s obsession with the F6134 batch of Star Cores; perhaps he was mistaken.
Lucas led Lu Rong toward the place where Feinier was kept. After walking for a while, Lu Rong felt a sense of strangeness because he was following Lucas up to the high levels of the casino’s towers.
As far as he knew, the casino had four towers. The lower levels were generally used to detain cheaters and gamblers who owed money. The upper levels, designed with an open-air aesthetic, were not suitable for holding prisoners and were usually locked tight.
The tower he was in now faced the sea. As they ascended, the view opened up to the dark, permafrost-covered frozen sea. On the ice plains of the frozen sea, there were shadows of animals—running winter deer and startled night birds—while the starry sky above was brilliant amidst the frost.
Lucas stopped before a somewhat dilapidated wooden door and pulled out a key.
Lu Rong looked at the falling snow by the tower window and said nonchalantly, “You keep him in a place like this, open to the elements? Aren’t you afraid he’ll escape? He was once an Imperial Marshal, after all—”
Before Lu Rong could finish, Lucas opened the door. The sight inside caused the words to catch in Lu Rong’s throat.
Lucas shrugged. “As you can see, there’s no need to worry about that anymore. His life has been locked away. This was a specific request from ‘The Wanderer’—’For those who yearn for freedom, a freedom that is visible but unreachable is the greatest torture.'”
Lu Rong remained silent for a long time, gazing at Feinier inside the golden cage.
If the cage did not contain a living being, any passerby would have marveled at this sculpture. It was a work of art that blended death, gore, and beauty.
The golden cage rose from the floor, its bars polished to a mirror-like shine that could reflect a person’s shadow. In the center of the domed ceiling hung a filigreed, hollow golden 3D planet, which upon closer inspection revealed the silhouette of the Kulkulkan Empire’s capital planet. A small wind chime hung beneath the capital planet, with many golden silk threads stretching from the chime to the gaps between the surrounding bars. When the wind blew, the chime produced a melodious, lingering sound.
Hidden among the silk threads were two golden chains as thick as an adult’s wrist. They extended from opposite sides to the center, converging on the silent being in the middle. They cruelly pierced through his wings, suspended his arms, and were locked onto his prominent collarbones.
The golden chains were stained with blood. The bloodstains were like red petals descending from the ancient night, dripping from the metal onto the floor, blooming one after another. Layer upon layer, they formed a blood-colored map, frozen onto the snow-white ground.
A faint scent of mint mingled with the smell of blood, its icy breath hanging like frost in the snowy night.
Feinier was so quiet. He was no longer the man Lu Rong had once seen—mean, arrogant, flaunting, and sharp. His head was fixed in an upward-tilted position, his long white hair cascading from his shoulders and forehead. When the wind blew, it swayed gently, silent and serene. Between the strands of hair, the clear, sharp outline of his jaw and the blue veins on the side of his neck were visible. There was a hint of ferocity and a hint of despair, making it look as though he were thirsting for the unreachable capital planet at the top of the cage.
His bare upper body still bore traces of physical training, evidence of the life he once had, though it was now pale from blood loss and appeared thin. It was nearly the same color as the white snake tail below, gilded with a holy light by the faint glow of the stars, like a sacrificed ancient god.
Lu Rong’s gaze shifted downward, landing on Feinier’s coiled snake tail on the floor. It was pure white, like mounds of snow. The wind blowing through the open structure of the tower brought in cold snowflakes, which piled up like mountains beside the tail.
Drifting snowflakes also landed on Lu Rong’s knuckles, slowly melting. The damp, cold sensation on his fingertips reminded Lu Rong of a certain snowy winter day. He unconsciously took a breath, his lungs filling with the icy cold of the snow. He choked slightly, his soul trembling, his entire body turning cold.
This freezing snowy night was so much like the day he had unexpectedly arrived in this world. The heavy snow fell like collapsing clouds, covering the earth layer by layer, as bitter frost filled every corner of heaven and earth.
On that day, the person trapped in the snow was him. He had been lying in the snow, bearing the scars left by an explosion. His internal organs were exposed, his intestines spilled onto the ground, and his limbs were bent at unnatural angles. He was broken and tattered.
The thick scent of blood had attracted hungry alien beasts from the snowy plains. His future seemed to hold only two choices: become a meal for the beasts, watching his own organs be devoured, or be eaten after turning into a frozen slab of meat.
And the explosion that had left him in this state had happened only minutes prior—at his wedding.
As the youngest Alliance commander of Planet Astar, Lu Rong had experienced hundreds, if not thousands, of assassination attempts. He had thought that perhaps one day he would die in one of them, but he had never imagined he would die this time, and in such a manner.
Because the person who had betrayed him was actually his childhood sweetheart and partner. But the facts were laid bare: not only was he dead, but his adoptive parents had likely been caught in the explosion as well.
During the long time he lay in the snow, Lu Rong once thought this was some cruel hallucination rather than reality—perhaps just a nightmare he was having while napping before the wedding.
It was then that he heard the crunching sound of footsteps approaching through the snow.
His vision was blurred, and his hearing had not fully recovered from the massive explosion. The footsteps were faint, mingled with the heavy breathing of the beasts, fragmented and broken, but he caught them. He struggled to look toward the sound. Amidst the thick limbs and foul-smelling saliva of the alien beasts, he vaguely saw a pair of military boots. The style was unlike any he had seen before; the surface was clean and spotless, with the soft sheen characteristic of leather.
The owner of the shoes must have been very fastidious.
But in the blizzard of the night, at the moment the beasts were clamoring, those shoes were destined to be stained with blood. The flash of a long blade in the snow became a cold moonlight, wiping the color of blood into the white world.
The foul blood of the alien beasts splashed out, falling onto the snow like ribbons—grotesque yet beautiful. There were countless simple ways in the universe to kill an alien beast, but this person chose the one that resulted in the most bloodshed, as if venting anger.
The stench of blood was like poison mixed into the snow, making the blizzard even more violent. When the last beast fell, Lu Rong knew he was saved, but he was also close to becoming a frozen corpse.
The person who saved him was perfectly calm. That person stood atop the mangled corpses, appearing tall and well-proportioned. Lu Rong could not see his face clearly; the other seemed to be wearing a silver-gray mask and was slowly and methodically wiping his blade.
Lu Rong heard a cold and weary voice. “This is not a place you should have come to.”
Utterly arrogant.
Lu Rong almost thought he would be left in the snow to die, but in the next second, the person leaned down toward him. The stranger was clearly strong, digging him out of the snow and slinging him over a shoulder, carrying him through the wind and snow, step by step away from the frozen plains.
Even after all this time, Lu Rong still remembered the faint scent of mint in the wind and snow. That scent made the storm feel even colder, yet it also soothed the pain in Lu Rong’s body.
Before reaching their destination, Lu Rong had lost consciousness in that faint scent of mint.
Later, at the Interstellar Planning Bureau, Lu Rong learned that the planet he had accidentally landed on was designated D4752, a D-rank planet located in the Empire’s Fourth Star Sector.
A D-rank planet meant the planet had an environment suitable for life and animals living there, but it had not yet evolved an intelligent race.
For such planets, the Empire would conduct appropriate “trace-free tourism”—meaning tourism projects were arranged to an extent that did not affect the evolution and development of local organisms. Once local organisms were found to be evolving intelligence, the tourism industry would immediately terminate.
Afterward, the Empire would not take the initiative to appear before those newborn intelligent races discovered there were others beyond their world.
D4752 was one such planet, but the local tourism industry was only open in the summer, not during the winter when blizzards raged.
As for the mint, it was not a plant that would exist on D4752 in winter. That icy scent was the out-of-control pheromones of that person.