Under the radiance of the red sun, the two points of golden light merged and shifted once more, transforming into high-precision models of the metallic structures within the twin planets.
Then, they locked together and began to rotate slowly.
Simultaneously, the two planets directly below, bound in their orbital embrace, began to spin in the direction of their natural rotation.
No one questioned what the man was doing, for everyone knew that the "Sun Star" never acted without purpose.
And indeed, he did not.
As the violent stellar winds swept past, the orange-red twin stars churned.
But they were spinning faster—and faster still!
"He’s... he’s accelerating the planets' rotation?!" Hana stared at that back, as steady as a mountain, and felt a jolt of shock.
Limited by the information she had previously gathered, she had never imagined a transcendent could so easily manipulate a planet—no, two planets—and then, in such a brief span of time, cause those monumental celestial bodies to accelerate their spin amidst a brilliant, searing golden light until even the traces of their riverbeds began to blur.
Question: Why does the rotation of known material planets in the universe not exceed a certain limit?
Answer: Because if a material planet rotates too quickly...
...it disintegrates.
*Rumble...*
Orange abysses split open as matter erupted violently from the ground.
Metallic substances were the first to break through the surface, drawn out in a continuous stream. These were the countless veins of metal hidden beneath the crust, along with the metal-supported underground cities contained within one of the planets.
The environment of this planet was peculiar; its surface bore no craters left by ancient oceans, yet its interior contained vast caverns that had once been rich with water. Those cities had been built along the banks of these wide, magnificent subterranean rivers, rooted into cliffs that had never seen the light of day. Currently, they were completely sealed, devoid of life.
Perhaps these places once had flora and fauna, like fluorescent fungi, to provide illumination; or perhaps the members of the civilization born here simply had no need for light in the darkness.
In any case, all of that was gone now. The ruins of a civilization were being extracted by a giant hand from beyond the heavens, while life itself remained a fleeting phantom in the dark universe, vanished without a trace.
The rigid structural force provided by the hard crust was shattered, and the cohesive gravity could no longer supply the centripetal force required by the planets themselves during such high-speed rotation.
A faint sound emanated from the structurally unstable twin stars—the final cry of a civilization’s tomb. They could finally no longer withstand such force and shattered with a roar, allowing surface plates to crumble and internal magma to flow freely. They were like scalding balls of milk that could no longer maintain the sweet, thin membrane on their surface.
Lei Ting’s expression remained unchanged as he raised his hand, dispersing the magnificent golden light.
The "Yang Alloy" shattered and vanished, returning to his "Sun Star" radiance. Under the glow of the red sun, only the vortex-structured, hive-like cities remained, listening to the planets' final wail.
An orange-red flower bloomed in the starry sky.
It was the planets' final "act."
Lei Ting turned around, his pitch-black cloak fluttering around him.
The "Sun Star" extracting metallic matter was, in itself, the finest purification technique. Iron, copper, gold... common and rare, active and inert—those shimmering metals flowed toward him in a ceaseless stream. He categorized them into cubes one meter in diameter and discarded them into the interplanetary space that was now a newborn belt of clumpy asteroids.
The vortex-like cities had already been sent into starships large enough to hold them, prepared for exploration and research as specimens of a dead civilization.
Lei Ting vanished into a flash of golden light.
After he departed, the orange-red fragments flew outward like fireworks, drowning the space where he had stood. Eventually, carrying that powerful kinetic energy, they scattered into the capture field networks prepared by the surrounding fleet.
The time he took to perform these operations was not long—at least, by the time he returned to his office, Susanna had just finished brewing a pot of interstellar-modified clear tea. She called out toward the office, "The tea is ready! What snacks would you like?"
The next moment, a message flashed on her optical brain eyepiece: [Apple crumble, mung bean cakes, corn-flavored donuts, and a few mints, please. Thank you.]
His tastes really haven't changed in years... and neither has his politeness.
Susanna retrieved the pastries the Deputy Legion Commander wanted from the preservation cabinet, placed them on a wooden tray with a metal base, and let go.
The tray did not fall; instead, it vanished into a shimmer of golden light.
***
Capturing that asteroid belt and entering the material extraction phase took only a day and a half. This was significantly faster than the standard operational procedure, which involved identifying stress points for strikes and would have taken seven to fourteen days of planned bombardment.
During the subsequent return voyage, the number of internal violations within the First Legion was zero.
This included the interns.
There was no helping it. To put it politely, they were in awe of the powerhouse stationed there; to put it bluntly, they were terrified.
However... it was probably not incomprehensible that these beings, who were essentially still mortals of flesh and blood, would fear a man who crushed planets as easily as one might crush a mung bean cake.
Especially with that effortless poise, that candid and composed posture... anyone could see that this power—which would be criticized as "overblown" even if written into myths and legends about a human—had only been revealed to them in the smallest fraction.
Yet this tiny fraction, in the eyes of the onlookers, was a majestic and world-altering force that could turn planets.
He had even precisely extracted the ruins of a civilization.
Intact. Without a single scratch.
The heart to revere the strong exists in everyone. No one who witnessed such a scene could fail to feel awe and longing for such power, nor could anyone escape the fate of being drawn to that figure.
"Sun Star."
"Double S..."
"The Sun."
"God-like power."
"If he used his full strength..."
These were the top three keywords detected most frequently in internal communications by "Xihe" recently. When it submitted this report to Valianna’s optical brain, the First Legion Commander—who had already delegated much of her authority to Lei Ting—didn't even look up as she forwarded it to Susanna.
She then continued to use various grades of soft cloth and maintenance paste to meticulously wipe her "Champion." As she wiped, she felt a twinge of envy that Lei Ting never had to maintain his metallic weapons—unless he "ordered" otherwise, the metal around him would always remain in its "best state."
During this time, Hana did not go to see Lei Ting. She didn't actually have much in the way of feelings for him—familial, platonic, or otherwise. She had none.
She simply grew up trusting only her own judgment rather than the nonsense of others. In her judgment, Lei Ting was a good person—a good person who wouldn't change his core self on a whim.
However... she was the type of person who, upon seeing a target superior to herself in every way, would feel a gnawing urge to force herself to catch up and surpass them.
This personality trait had been formed since she was only seven or eight years old. She wasn't blindly confident, nor did she firmly believe she could definitely succeed, but once she set a goal, she would put her whole heart and soul into striving for it until the end.
It sounded like a psychological issue, but who didn't have a few psychological issues these days?
Without this drive to sustain her, she wouldn't have survived to this day.
Currently, she was working as an assistant to Susanna, but she wasn't arrogant enough to think she could challenge anyone in terms of power. Thus, she simply focused on learning seriously.
Unlike Lei Ting’s operation during his internship, where he defeated every opponent in the First Legion in batches, she now had a very clear realization that an ordinary transcendent was no different from a normal person in front of certain individuals.
So what if she was predicted to be "A-level"? Even if her ability turned her into a dragon, it would be impossible to catch up to Lei Ting...
And besides, sigh, isn't it fine to just be a decent person? Why must one consider how to challenge a transcendent star?
Later, Lei Ting soon returned to the capital system. He did not undergo inspections, nor did he waste words with anyone; he simply walked straight into the Parliament Hall.
In the current Federation, no one dared to stop him. Even for things that should have been done according to regulations, everyone would give him a pass—meaning they pretended not to see him at all.
In any case, the "Sun Star’s" very existence ensured that the entire First Legion could not be infected by space pathogens, let alone the "Sun Star" himself.
As for Lei Ting...
He didn't have that much time to cooperate with these people in their convoluted schemes.
There were few people in the Parliament Hall today, only a scattering of rotating councilors. The highest-ranking among them was Vice Speaker Grahall Yondell. When Lei Ting entered, the Vice Speaker was looking down, writing something on his data pad, his short brown hair reflecting a soft, subtle light under the lamps.
Then, he looked up, lowered his seat, stood, and walked toward Lei Ting. "Sun Star, you’ve arrived."
"I have," Lei Ting replied in a calm tone, without opening his visor.
Even though the root cause of the incident from back then had still not been found, the current Federal Parliament maintained a long-term friendly relationship with him.
No one who could scramble for a seat in this hall was a fool. They understood the importance of a win-win situation better than anyone, and they understood even better that there was no benefit in thoroughly enraging Lei Ting. Therefore, once they learned to position themselves correctly in front of Lei Ting, they could humble themselves better than anyone and act more like Lei Ting’s close friends than anyone else.
In these few years, everything Lei Ting needed—including resources, information, and power—the Federal Parliament had provided to him without reservation.
Following Lei Ting’s suggestions, the Federation was cleaning up corruption, strengthening the cultivation of talent, and increasing the protection and management of the populace... All of this proceeded smoothly once his name was attached to it. Even if some regions were not smooth enough, after Lei Ting took the time to personally visit those places, they became perfectly smooth.
Everything seemed to be improving. Lei Ting got the positive changes he wanted, and the Federation got the pillar and the greater interests they desired.
And this pillar would only propose some reasonable suggestions and occasionally appear suddenly in certain places to check on the progress of matters; he never interfered with the Federation's internal operations. He was very self-aware now; he knew he was not omnipotent.
If a complete system were to be changed recklessly, the pressure would be distributed downward, and ultimately, the people he cared about would be the ones to suffer.
In any case, putting aside those who were merely "unclean," those who were truly depraved were already dead—dead in trials that met regulations, or in missions "issued by the Federal Parliament."
A light metallic disturbance, one that wouldn't even trigger the "Sun Star’s" innate radiance, was enough to take a commoner's life.
Consequently, while the Federation’s citizens cheered that some heinous villains had finally been executed, the current "Sun Star" was increasingly feared by those in the know.
Because he was not simply "the Sun" and "Iron."
His existence was a red line that killed all who touched it.
However, Yondell was not afraid of this threat that hovered between the tangible and intangible, for he knew very well that Lei Ting would not act against anyone without major issues. Conversely, as long as one did not touch certain red lines, being by this man's side made one the safest person in the world.
The relationship between Lei Ting and Yondell was also quite good. After all, the Vice Speaker’s biggest stain in recent years was that he had nearly executed the envoy from Abrissack before the two countries had even gone to war... and that incident, it was said, had its own hidden story.
"So," Lei Ting asked, "why did you call me back?"
***
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