Those Who Offend the Mighty Han, However Far Away, Shall Be Punished

Just as Starscream and those so-called Xiongnu worshippers were excavating some underground facility, they had no idea that several pairs of vigilant, hostile eyes had already fixed upon them.

"My lord, what should we do now? The mark on that big fellow looks like the one mentioned in the ancient books. Could this truly mean Heaven intends to destroy our Great Han? If they really discover that power, no one in the lands of Shenzhou will be able to stop the Xiongnu cavalry!"

"Exactly! Lord Huo, there's nothing we can do now. If they were merely Xiongnu, we could summon an army and wipe them out. But what are we supposed to do about that monster? If they release that power from before, there will be even more monsters like it, and we..."

This was a conversation between several slaves—or rather, these men had likely only pretended to be captured and enslaved. Judging by their conduct and martial skill, they were all trained fighters, top-tier experts even among humans. Especially the young man addressed as Lord Huo—he was broad-shouldered and powerfully built...

However, even the strongest humans were nothing in Starscream's eyes. Even ten thousand such men could never possibly be a match for this Decepticon Air Commander. Such was the superiority of a higher civilization.

"All of you, shut up. Don't bolster others' morale while diminishing your own. General Wei sent us here to gather military intelligence precisely so that we could stop something like this from happening! I don't care what these people are trying to awaken—whether it's Chiyou or the devil himself—remember this well: those who offend the mighty Han, however far away, shall be punished!"

Well, it seemed these men truly had come with another purpose. Though they had lowered their voices as much as possible and spoken directly into one another's ears, such faint sounds still could not escape the surveillance of the Ever-Changing Steel System. Starscream received the information immediately.

Starscream had originally paid no attention whatsoever to the whispers and private discussions of ordinary humans. To such powerful Transformers as himself, these ordinary people were no different from gods. It was only natural that they might have their own thoughts and discussions; Starscream had no desire to waste his system memory analyzing such things.

But after those disguised soldiers uttered words like "Han" and "however far away, shall be punished," his Spark visibly trembled for reasons he could not understand, as though he were highly sensitive to those words.

"System Boss, what's going on? Why is the Spark inside my body reacting to what these humans said? I shouldn't have had any prior contact with them! Or do those characters they mentioned possess some unusual energy signature?"

"Host, I suspect you are overthinking it. There are no traces of energy in these humans' conversation. Perhaps those characters once appeared in your memory system. You should conduct a system self-check!"

After examining his memory bank and language system, Starscream still could not explain why his Spark had fluctuated just now.

But the fluctuation had lasted only an instant before seemingly returning to calm. Still, Starscream recorded the incident. Perhaps he would find the answer someday.

"Then leave them alone for now, but keep a close watch on those humans. I have a feeling they aren't on the same side as these Xiongnu. Could they be some hostile force?"

This was Starscream's first time taking an interest in human conflicts. However, his primary focus remained on excavating that Decepticon outpost, and it seemed the results came quickly.

Boom!

Thud! Thud!

Whether because the space below was a vacuum or because they had triggered some special mechanism, a massive cave-in occurred roughly two hundred meters away while Starscream was momentarily distracted. At least a hundred soldiers and slaves engaged in the excavation fell into a huge pit. Fortunately, it was not very deep, and the soil was loose and soft, so there appeared to be no casualties for the moment.

But soon, Xiongnu began shouting excitedly, as though they had found something.

"Look, what's that? It has a mark on it too! We found it!"

Well, it seemed the Decepticon outpost had not been buried very deeply. Beneath the collapsed area, they soon cleared away enough earth to reveal a massive metal plate. It looked like a door, and beside it was a recessed Decepticon insignia that appeared to be an access control system.

"Lord Huo, those Xiongnu and that giant monster seem to have found something. Should we go down there immediately?"

Sure enough, those Han soldiers had come for this Decepticon outpost as well. Yet in their human records, this thing apparently went by another name—one that fit their human logic and understanding.

"No, this is far too dangerous! Even if you are not afraid of those Xiongnu, we must still guard against that giant fellow. A few brothers and I will go down. You two find a way to slip out and report to General Wei. Tell him to quietly move the troops closer. We absolutely cannot let these Xiongnu excavate the thing!"

"General Huo, it's too dangerous. Let us go instead. You should return and report to General Wei."

Clearly, this Decepticon outpost seemed to be something extremely important to these humans. Perhaps the system's developer had done something special to them back then.

In any case, Starscream could not care less about that. He walked straight down, drove all the humans nearby away, and stood alone before the massive door.

"Host, this is a light-sensitive access system. Although it is technology from a thousand years ago, its developer's compatibility design was quite good. You only need to charge your Decepticon insignia and project the light into it!"

Well, this method of opening the door was probably something only Decepticons from Cybertron could accomplish. No wonder those Xiongnu had spent so long without finding a way inside.

"Heh, then let's give it a try! I also want to see what those Decepticon pioneers intended to do when they came to this planet. I've never been able to understand what this backward planet could possibly possess that was worth their attention."

After receiving the system's instructions, Starscream did as it directed.