Chapter 2: The Second Iron Pillar

Exile Planet was a small asteroid at the far edge of the Wilderness Galaxy, situated at the crossroads of various territories and under the dominion of the Hive. It was not always called Exile Planet; it once bore a beautiful name. But as the Hive gradually declined, becoming like rotten wood soaked in muddy water for too long, Exile Planet was forced to abandon its original name.

Most of those gathered here were fugitives and space pirates, along with undocumented individuals of unknown origin, exiled criminals, and naturally, the descendants of such people. Here, fists held more sway than the law, and in the scrapyards, it was not uncommon to find vagrants dead from brawls and robberies. The black market thrived wildly; as long as one had money, many forbidden items could be procured. Whether the buyer would be betrayed afterward depended on their own cunning.

Isaac Town, located on Exile Planet, was relatively affluent compared to its surroundings, yet each day still unfolded as a chaotic blend of fighting and disorder—tedious yet nerve-wracking. Today, Isaac Town was unlike usual. As the sun set and the sky darkened with ink-black hues, the entire town began to stir with excitement.

Anyone with even a hint of information knew that tonight the largest black market in Isaac would hold an auction, rumored to offer D-grade energy crystals. Everyone understood the indispensability of energy crystals—whether to enhance the spiritual sea within or to power mechanical devices. The higher the grade, the greater the energy contained, and the rarer the crystal. Naturally, the price soared accordingly.

For the residents of resource-starved Exile Planet, a D-grade energy crystal was a prize beyond measure.

The auction would begin in half an hour.

*

Compared to the brightly lit auction hall, the storage room piled high with goods was dim and damp, heavy with a cloying moisture that permeated the air.

“New Moon, move this box of feed to the next room,” a voice called from afar.

The girl named New Moon rose without a word. She wore a hooded coverall, the oversized black garment hanging on her frame like a burlap sack, obscuring her figure and face.

The box of feed was over two meters tall, yet she lifted it effortlessly and carried it next door with a surprisingly light step that belied her slender build.

New Moon was starving, her stomach gnawing with hunger—she had been hungry for days. To be precise, she had been hungry shortly after leaving the flying ship of the Linamo species.

Most people here drank foul-tasting nutrient liquids; those better off scavenged exotic beast meat. To stave off hunger, New Moon had resorted to theft, black market dealings, and fending off those who eyed her, but no matter how much she ate, she remained ravenous.

Starving.

Even the so-called "delicacies" she consumed failed to replenish the energy spent in her struggles.

So she stopped fighting.

She found a job, though without a neural account or identity ID, her wages were pitifully low. Fortunately, food and lodging were included.

The next room stored rare living creatures. The auction did not only sell energy crystals but also precious pets and sometimes beautiful tools.

Thud.

New Moon set down the box in the cramped space where animals and their feed were kept together for convenience.

Roars echoed from behind her, mingled with sobbing. Usually, only beastly howls filled this place. Hearing the crying, New Moon turned around.

*

The warehouse was filled with square cages packed tightly, barely half a meter apart.

Inside were towering white eggs yet to hatch, vibrant birds crowned with colorful feathers, lithe half-beast women, and children showing early signs of beauty.

As New Moon’s gaze swept over them and she prepared to look away, she suddenly met a pair of gleaming compound eyes.

She halted.

Before her was a woman whose face was half disfigured—one side grotesque as a demon’s, the other delicate and comely.

Her face was deathly pale, drained of blood. Her hands were bound, and behind her, a pair of massive dark brown steel wings were pierced at the base with metal rings, thickly encrusted with bloodstains along the chains.

Two transparent tubes punctured her abdomen, slowly extracting a pale golden liquid.

Undeniably, this was a woman of the Hive.

It was ironic—though Exile Planet was originally Hive territory, here the Hive had been reduced to slaves.

“Please... kill me,” the woman whispered faintly, barely a breath.

She looked near death, on the verge of passing.

New Moon’s face remained expressionless.

Killing would only make her hungrier; it was not worthwhile.

She turned away, but the woman suddenly raised her weak voice, “My honey... my crystal core... I’ll give them to you. Please help me...”

Since her capture, she had endured fifty years of this, daily drained of her “honey” through tubes. It was agony, clinging to life by a thread, worse than death.

“Honey? Crystal core? What are those?” New Moon asked, puzzled.

In her knowledge, there was no record of “honey” or “crystal core.”

The woman fell silent, surprised that someone was unaware of these things. Strangely, New Moon’s curiosity seemed genuine.

But the woman’s curiosity quickly vanished.

Because none of it mattered anymore.

“Before I was incapacitated, I was... an evolved being. My crystal core would benefit you—you can eat it,” she said haltingly.

New Moon asked bluntly, “Will eating the crystal core satisfy hunger?”

She was starving now; the food from the black market was like drinking water: she ate plenty but remained hungry.

The woman was silent.

Of course not—the crystal core couldn’t fill the stomach. It only served to raise the star sea level within.

“It can fill hunger, so please kill me,” the woman lied.

New Moon: “Where is your crystal core?”

“In my abdomen. Removing it will kill me.”

New Moon nodded. Her five fingers suddenly lengthened, each joint growing deep blue, blade-like nail plates, with fingertips sharp as sickles.

The woman’s pupils constricted sharply. “You’re Hive... Hive!”

The claws pierced into her abdomen.

At that moment, the roars around fell silent. The previously agitated beasts in the cages all cowered.

New Moon felt the crystal core and was about to retrieve it when the woman, in a last flicker of life, snapped the chains binding her hands and gripped New Moon’s claw half-embedded in her abdomen.

“Princess! You are the princess!” the woman cried, blood tears streaming from her cloudy eyes. “Your pheromones are like Emperor Landy’s—you must be his child... Hahaha, that shameless thief, Singis, just as I said, she will face retribution, she will!”

*

“You’ve got the wrong person. I’m no princess,” New Moon said, knowing the truth.

Having escaped from the laboratory, there was no way she was any princess.

The woman denied vehemently, “No, as Emperor Landy’s former handmaiden, I would never be mistaken!”

New Moon grabbed the crystal core, withdrawing her claws. The woman’s abdomen gaped open, blood pouring out.

Yet her expression was wildly exhilarated, hardly that of a dying woman.

“Princess, I carry one-fifth of the secret decree. I thought the Empire’s rescue would come, bringing evidence of Singis’s crimes hidden within the decree, but I have waited fifty years—fifty years—and no one came,” the woman gasped blood.

Her cloudy eyes brightened as if all life converged within them.

“I feared I would never pass the handover. I thought our people were doomed to perish at the hands of that vile thief, Singis...”

She grasped New Moon’s wrist tightly. “Your Highness, the decree is hidden beneath the skin at the base of my wings. Please take it... take it!”

New Moon tilted her head. The ambition instilled by the Linamo species told her that this decree might be useful, though extracting it would drain her energy.

In the end, she moved again.

A splash of blood silently stained the floor.

The woman smiled, closing her eyes peacefully for the first time in ages. At life’s end, she seemed to transcend time, returning to a distant past.

In a garden blooming with flowers, a graceful queen stroked her just-come-of-age head. The queen’s pheromones were rich and fragrant—the scent the woman had longed for over half a century.

New Moon wiped the blood from the crystal core on her clothes, cleaned it off, then bit into it.

Crack.

The crystal core shattered under her teeth.

Her expression froze on the first bite; she gagged.

It was unbearably bitter and astringent, with a stench like sewage.

Had she not just extracted it from the woman’s abdomen herself, New Moon would have suspected it was dredged from a cesspool.

Gulp.

She swallowed it.

Strangely, the hunger eased just a little.

Just a little—almost no difference at all.

New Moon stared at the remaining crystal core in her hand, lost in thought.

To eat or not to eat?

“New Moon, something needs moving out here,” a voice called.

“Yeah, coming,” New Moon shouted back.

But she did not leave immediately. The reason was simple: she could no longer stay in this black market.

The cages before her held more than one captive, many of whom were sentient beings. They had witnessed everything that had just happened. If the black market sought to investigate the death of the Hive woman, they would surely trace it back to her.

Starving and facing a crowd, New Moon deemed it unwise.

Clad in her loose cloak, the girl slipped into the shadows and quickly disappeared.

Unbeknownst to New Moon, at the very moment she acted, several Hive members in different parts of Isaac Town simultaneously turned their heads sharply toward a single direction.

That place was precisely where the black market was located.