More Dangerous Than the Viduyadhara High Elder
The shaft of the Cloud-Piercing Spear gave a faint metallic whine that set teeth on edge.
Veins bulged across the back of Dan Heng's hand like tree roots.
His knuckles had turned bloodlessly white from the force of his grip.
Scalding steam billowed through the wide-open metal door of the Data Bank.
The smell of scorched insulation mixed with sharp ozone and forced its way up everyone's noses.
The heat had reddened the side of Dan Heng's face.
But the blood in his veins felt as though it had frozen in an icehouse.
He stared at the little white-haired girl in the center of the lounge.
His breathing came fast.
His chest rose and fell sharply, making his collar rub against his collarbone.
The killing intent buried deep in his bones spilled out beyond his control, like a beast driven into a corner.
The spear tip trembled in the air.
It was a living creature's instinctive defense against an unknown threat.
Dozens of paces away.
Su Chen stopped swinging his legs on the leather sofa.
He felt it.
A cold, sharp, openly hostile gaze pricked his back like a needle.
In a carriage where everyone had just been cowed by an Aeon's gaze.
Someone still dared to point a weapon at him.
Su Chen found it annoying.
His jaw clenched.
Crunch.
He bit the unfinished mint in his mouth to pieces.
The crisp crack sounded especially loud in the deathly silent carriage.
He did not get up.
Still sprawled over the sofa's backrest, he slowly turned his head.
The small round sunglasses slid half an inch down his nose.
Revealing his azure eyes in full.
Their gazes met across the room.
Dan Heng's eyelid twitched.
The instant their eyes met, the sounds around him receded.
Sparks crackling in the Data Bank, coolant bubbling as it boiled, Welt's heavy breathing.
All of it grew impossibly distant, then vanished into silence.
Dan Heng felt his soul dragged into a boundless blue Abyss.
What kind of eyes were those?
Ethereal and fathomless, yet filled with enough information to overwhelm a mortal mind.
There was no killing intent. No mockery.
Only absolute, unassailable superiority.
Like a human looking down at an ant beside the road.
You did not hate the ant. You simply did not care.
He could raise his spear or bare his fangs.
To the owner of those eyes, it would not even amount to a breeze.
Thud.
Dan Heng heard a heavy beat.
It was his own heart.
Thud, thud, thud!
His heart battered his ribs like a broken drum under a hammer.
Every beat forced ice-cold blood through his body.
His body's fear erupted in full.
The blood of the Vidyo-Dhara within Dan Heng, with all the pride that had once belonged to a High Elder.
At that moment, it sounded a desperate warning.
The ghostly outline of dragon scales flickered along his pale neck.
His blood was screaming at him to turn around and flee.
Even against a Lord Ravager, a Viduyadhara High Elder would draw his spear and fight.
But now Dan Heng's legs felt nailed to the metal floor. He could not take a single step.
A bead of cold sweat the size of a soybean formed on his forehead.
It slid down his straight nose.
Sweat ran into his eye, bringing a sharp sting.
Dan Heng could not even blink.
The air around him felt as though it had hardened into concrete.
Immense pressure bore down on his shoulders until the bones of his spine faintly grated together.
Pain throbbed through his knees.
His muscles spasmed uncontrollably.
An absurd thought crossed Dan Heng's mind.
If this little white-haired girl eating a mint wanted to.
She would not need to lift a finger.
One look, or even a sigh, would be enough.
She could crush the entire Xianzhou Luofu into a ball of scrap and toss it into a star like a toy.
This was no child.
This was a cosmic calamity wearing human skin.
Su Chen watched the stiff, impassive young man.
The azure Six Eyes caught every tremor in Dan Heng's muscles and every drop of sweat sliding down his skin.
He could see energy racing wildly through the man's body, held so tightly in his meridians that he did not dare release it.
Little Satoru Gojo grinned.
Two neat rows of small white teeth showed.
She said nothing.
She simply watched Dan Heng, her gaze tinged with bored indifference.
The seconds ticked by.
Less than three seconds had actually passed.
But to Dan Heng, they were harder to endure than all his long years in The Shackling Prison.
Lack of oxygen darkened the edges of his vision.
His chest felt packed with a great wad of soaked cotton.
His right hand, still gripping the spear, went completely numb. His fingers stiffened until they could no longer bend.
Clang.
Metal struck the floor with a clear ring.
The Cloud-Piercing Spear dissolved into a cloud of pale blue vapor in Dan Heng's palm.
He had let go.
He had abandoned any show of resistance.
Dan Heng lowered his head, avoiding those azure eyes.
His chin nearly touched his collarbone.
He gulped down the carriage's smoke-tainted air.
His lungs rasped under the strain.
Everything he believed had been crushed to pieces.
So what if he was a guard of the Astral Express?
So what if he was a Viduyadhara High Elder heir to generations of power?
Before this so-called Seventh Seat of the Imaginary Divine Court, he was not even worthy of carrying her shoes.
In those three seconds, even the courage to look her in the eye had been drained from him.
Su Chen saw him dismiss his weapon and lost interest.
He turned back and draped himself over the sofa's backrest again.
Pushing up his sunglasses, he gazed at the sea of stars beyond the window, now peaceful once more.
His short little legs resumed swinging in the air.
Air seemed to flow through the lounge again.
The suffocating pressure vanished in an instant.
Welt was still down on one knee on the charred Data Bank floor, with no strength to spare for what had happened outside.
Himeko leaned against the doorframe, her face pale.
Dan Heng stood where he was.
Sweat had soaked through his undershirt. It clung to his skin, and the slightest draft chilled him to the bone.
He looked at his faintly trembling right hand.
The metal shaft had left marks across his palm.
He said nothing.
He could not even manage a polite remark.
Dan Heng turned, his steps unsteady.
His shoes crunched over the glass shards scattered across the floor.
Head lowered, he walked back into the depths of the Data Bank.
Melted cabinets still gave off black smoke, and damaged wiring spat faint sparks.
Dan Heng's figure faded into the dim haze.
He looked utterly beaten and withdrawn.
The observation car fell silent again.
Behind the enormous leather sofa.
A pair of golden eyes furtively watched everything outside.
Xingbao lay flat on the carpet like a lizard hiding from a predator, pressed tight against the sofa's leather base.
She had seen everything.
The levelheaded, formidable little dragon of the Astral Express Crew.
He had not even dared use his strongest move.
One glance from the little white-haired girl had scared him into dropping his weapon and slinking into the darkened room.
Xingbao swallowed.
A gulp sounded in her throat.
She looked down at her dust-covered hands, then up at the two small, fair feet swinging above her head.
The fear in her golden eyes was rapidly fading.
In its place came the feverish gleam of someone who had found a powerful protector.
Even the Astral Express Crew couldn't afford to cross this big shot!
If I get on her good side, who'll dare stop me from rummaging through trash cans across the stars?
A Stellaron? Destruction?
What are they next to a girl who can scare someone senseless with a glance?
Xingbao's breathing quickened.
She crawled out from behind the sofa on hands and knees.
The hem of her loose coat dragged across the carpet, leaving a streak in the dust.
She went around the glass coffee table.
And hurried to the front of the sofa where Su Chen lay.
Without the slightest hesitation.
Xingbao's legs gave way.
Thump!
Both knees hit the red velvet carpet hard with a muffled thud.
She planted her hands on the floor, straightened her back, and raised her dust-covered face.
She stayed firmly on her knees before Little Satoru Gojo.