Black Sand

Space pirates were the most notorious rats in the universe. They basically raided planets and passing spacecraft.

After the group approached the star system where Giant Forest Planet was located, they finally ran into real trouble. Dozens of spacecraft shot out from behind an asteroid field and surrounded Li Ming's ship.

A single misstep in a situation like this could lead to the ship being destroyed. And in outer space, even if they somehow survived the explosion, they would not last long.

"Boss, this is bad. They're the infamous Black Sand Pirates, a large pirate organization that roams the universe. Their leader is Black Sand, with a power level exceeding ten thousand."

"Got it. Don't move forward. Tell them that if they don't want to die, they should get the hell out of here!"

Li Ming fixed his gaze on the largest spacecraft behind the others. At least two ki signatures inside had power levels of ten thousand.

"Th-this... Boss, isn't that a bit inappropriate?"

"There's nothing inappropriate about it. Just do as I say," Li Ming said in an unquestionable tone.

A mere ten thousand power level, even if they were hiding something, could not be that strong—especially not compared to someone like Li Ming, who had trained in martial arts.

There was only so much control one could exert over their own ki. Without deliberate suppression, one's displayed power level was normally about ten percent of their usual strength.

Because of his berserk transformation development, Li Ming had struggled to keep his ki below thirty percent even a year ago. Only now had he returned to normal.

This was inherently a process of energy leaking from the body, something normal living beings found difficult to avoid—unless they were like Namekians, who possessed functions somewhat similar to plant photosynthesis.

Meanwhile, aboard Black Sand's spacecraft behind the swarm of ships, an alien with a catfish-like face and two whiskers by his mouth sat there in a commanding posture.

The aliens around him came in all sorts of bizarre shapes. Humanoid ones were rare.

"Boss! They told us to get lost!"

"What!? They're courting death!"

"What an arrogant bastard. Who does he think he is?"

"Let me tear him apart!" The space pirates immediately erupted into an uproar. They were the infamous Black Sand Pirates—when had anyone ever provoked them like this?

"Quiet!" Black Sand, seated at the head, suddenly roared. The deep soundwave instantly silenced everyone.

Seeing this, Black Sand asked the alien who had spoken first, "Can you determine the opponent's highest power level?"

A man capable of organizing a space pirate group of this scale was not some idiot who charged ahead blindly at the sight of profit. He knew whom he could offend and whom he could not.

In the universe, the simplest way to judge whether someone could be provoked was by their power level. If the other side's fist was bigger, then naturally they had to avoid the edge of it.

"Um... the scouters seem to be broken. They keep displaying the maximum power level, so there's nothing we can do," the alien said gloomily.

Black Sand had never seen anything like this either. Frowning in confusion, he said, "Broken? Then why not replace them?"

"We did, but they're... they're all broken..."

"What?"

Black Sand looked stunned. This was the first time he had heard of such a situation. The most common way a scouter was damaged was when it was overloaded and destroyed by an extremely high-power target.

Other than that, he had never seen anything that looked like a natural malfunction—much less all of them breaking at once.

"Give it to me. Let me see."

The alien did not dare delay and handed Black Sand a standard scouter. Black Sand pressed it several times, but the number remained at 99999 without the slightest reaction.

"Damn it, those crooked merchants sold us counterfeit goods again! Boss, I told you we shouldn't have traded with them. We should've just robbed them!" an alien of another species said.

"No... the scouters aren't broken. What exactly is this..."

Boom!

Confusion filled Black Sand's face when a blinding light suddenly flared outside the spacecraft. The scouter instantly exploded, sending up a cloud of black smoke!

Black Sand's pupils shrank to pinpoints. He sprang to his feet and screamed, "Run!"

Unfortunately, those became his final words. A wave of energy larger than the entire spacecraft swept through the region of space!

Nearly a hundred spacecraft were swallowed up in an instant!

Star Map Shattering Wave!

This technique further reduced the power of Frenzied Thunder Flash, turning it into a large-area move instead—a map-wide bombardment attack.

In its wake, nothing remained but specks of light as dazzling as stars!

"Th-this is the boss's strength? Captain Babas, are you sure an attack like that could come from someone with a power level of ten thousand?" Kulunxi asked in stunned disbelief aboard the ship.

The others beside her were completely dumbstruck. She had a comparatively lively personality, so she still had the mood to speak. As for the rest, they remained trapped in the shock of that strike.

Whoosh!

Li Ming used Instant Transmission to appear directly inside the spacecraft. At this distance, he did not even need to lock onto a ki signature.

"Alright, head to that planet. There should still be one survivor left."

"Boss, are you... are you really only at ten thousand power level?" Kulunxi immediately turned back and asked.

The others finally came to their senses as well, though none of them dared ask. They merely looked at Li Ming expectantly. They did not have Kulunxi's nerve—or rather, her thick skin.

Li Ming did not answer directly. He gave everyone a long look before saying, "You'll find out eventually."

Because of Stet, Li Ming did not trust these people now. If nothing unexpected happened, once his identity was exposed, he would choose to kill them all!

Being harmless and never creating danger were two entirely different things. Once Li Ming was exposed, danger and trouble could come knocking at any time.

Babas and the others tacitly chose not to ask any further questions. Kainsen piloted the spaceship down onto a nearby asteroid. A wrecked spacecraft had crashed there, while an escape pod had fortunately survived.

Crack!

The escape pod's door slowly opened, and Black Sand stepped out. However, he was in an exceptionally sorry state, his body covered in wounds of all sizes.

"Sir, over here!"

The sudden voice plunged Black Sand into despair. Two words instantly flashed through his mind: It's over!

Kain's voice drew Li Ming and the others over. The moment they stood before Black Sand, he knew there was no way he could escape.

"Looks like you can still move. Tell me, who sent you?" Li Ming asked bluntly.

Babas had told him that this mission was far from simple. Space pirates generally did not remain in the same place for long, yet this mission had failed repeatedly. That meant the Black Sand Pirates must have been stationed here all along.

Without someone directing him from behind the scenes, a pirate like Black Sand would never have made such a rookie mistake.

"Tch! Frieza wanted to make a move against Giant Forest Planet, but Giant Forest Planet is under the protection of the Galactic Patrol, so he couldn't attack it directly. He could only make the planet submit of its own accord." Black Sand knew exactly what awaited him. At this point, whether he spoke or not made little difference.

"Frieza needs a reason to conquer a planet?" Li Ming said coldly. He did not believe Frieza had such principles.

Black Sand's mouth twitched as he continued, "It's because the Ginyu Force assigned to that planet was supposedly killed by someone. As a result, Frieza had no one left under his command capable of going to war against Giant Forest Planet, so he had to use this method..."

Li Ming raised an eyebrow. That was beyond his expectations, but it was also a fortunate coincidence. Frieza truly did not have many capable people left under him now.

A bunch of cannon fodder would be useless, and as for anyone stronger, the only one left was Vegeta, a born rebel.

Even if Frieza wanted to rebuild the Ginyu Force, it would be difficult to find suitable candidates anytime soon. Not to mention that for the past two years, Frieza had been busy hunting down Li Ming and had no time at all to deal with conquering planets.

"How long have you been stationed here?"

"More than a year..." Black Sand's face was ashen, and he had nearly given up struggling. The energy in his body was actually still quite abundant, but he did not dare resist at all. Li Ming's earlier Star Map Shattering Wave had utterly shattered his will.

His scouter was not broken either, which meant the person before him had already exceeded its detection limit—a battle power of over one hundred thousand!

What kind of concept was that? Even within the Ginyu Force, Frieza's strongest subordinates, only their captain had a battle power exceeding one hundred thousand!

Aside from that, people with battle powers above one hundred thousand were practically all renowned powerhouses in this region of the universe.

How could his luck be this terrible, running into a monster like this?