Not to Be Rude, but You Call This an Ordinary Cosmic Organization?

The VIP Lounge's heavy airtight door slowly closed.

The shrill alarms in the corridor were shut out completely.

Welt's question about their grand ambitions still hung in the velvet-carpeted room.

Su Chen walked to the seat at the head of the room.

It was a broad black leather sofa.

He didn't dare lean all the way back.

It looked too soft. If he sank into it, the godlike aura he'd just built would be ruined.

The Female Lord held her back straight and perched on barely a third of the sofa's edge.

Her high-heeled boots planted firmly on the carpet.

Su Chen felt the muscles in the front of his thighs starting to ache, but he had to tough it out.

Himeko walked to the solid-wood coffee table.

She picked up the copper-colored temperature-controlled kettle and poured hot tea into the white porcelain cup in front of Su Chen.

The water made a faint sound as it flowed into the cup.

Welt stood behind and to Himeko's side, leaning on his cane.

He did not sit.

Until the Fourth Seat made her position clear, his instincts as the Herrscher of Reason kept him on absolute guard.

Su Chen stared at the steaming tea.

He was buying time.

His mind raced like an old machine pushed past its limits.

What grand ambitions did the Imaginary Divine Court have? How would he know? He'd made the name up ten minutes ago.

If he said, "I was just passing by and took care of a monster," all that posturing would go to waste.

He had to go big.

The bigger, the better. The more outrageous, the safer.

Su Chen reached out with two fingers and pinched the cup's handle.

His fingertips touched the porcelain.

This body was too strong, and he misjudged his grip.

Crack.

The rim of the white porcelain cup made a crisp sound, and a fine crack appeared.

Su Chen's heart skipped a beat.

Crap, too much force. Don't crush the cup.

He quickly eased his grip and brought the cup steadily to his lips, blowing gently across the tea.

Across from him,

Welt's grip on his cane tightened sharply.

The rubber tip scraped against the wooden floor with a harsh squeal.

He stared at the crack.

It's a warning. She's displeased by my probing.

Su Chen sipped the hot tea.

It soothed his dry throat.

The Female Lord slowly raised her emotionless golden eyes and swept her gaze over the two of them.

"Grand ambitions?"

Her cool voice rang through the VIP Lounge, carrying a trace of pitying mockery.

"Mortals always insist on measuring the stars with their laughably small yardsticks."

Himeko's hand froze mid-pour.

A drop of boiling water fell from the spout.

It struck the carpet without a sound.

Su Chen set down his cup.

Its base struck the glass coffee table with a dull tap.

"The Divine Court does not interfere in the squabbles of ants."

"The Antimatter Legion, the calamity of the Stellaron—in this sea of stars, they are no more than tiny splashes from pebbles falling into water."

Welt swallowed with difficulty.

A Doomsday Beast was a pebble to her?

The Female Lord interlaced her fingers and rested them on her knee.

"We watch only the Aeons."

"Or rather... we contain rules powerful enough to destroy the universe."

The air in the room seemed to freeze.

The virtual fireplace cast its glow across Welt's pale face.

Aeons.

They were the supreme beings of this universe, the endpoints of the Paths.

Yet to this Fourth Seat, they were merely objects to be "watched"?

[Ding!]

[Extreme shock detected. Shock Points +2,000!]

A blue system pop-up flashed wildly across Su Chen's vision.

He was delighted.

That worked. I just need to keep going.

He decided to add fuel to the fire.

"Five hundred Amber Eras ago."

Su Chen lied with a straight face.

"At the edge of the Abyss, the First Seat snuffed out a black-hole life-form that tried to devour the multiverse."

"The thing made quite a commotion. It shattered three major Imaginary arteries."

Himeko's breath caught.

She gently set the Copper Kettle on the table.

Several veins stood out faintly on the back of her hand.

"Three hundred Amber Eras ago, the Second Seat found a branch of a Path too noisy."

The Female Lord turned her head toward an abstract star chart on the wall.

"So the Second Seat snapped it off and buried it in the depths of Nihility."

A fine layer of cold sweat broke out on Welt's forehead.

Snap off a branch of a Path?

What kind of lunatic claim was that?

If anyone else had said it, Welt would have refuted them on the spot.

But ten minutes ago, he had watched this woman conjure a meteor with her bare hands and smash the Antimatter Legion's war beast into pulp.

That pure energy belonged to no known Path.

That ancient pressure was beyond the space station's instruments to analyze.

Both seemed to lend weight to her outrageous claims.

The temperature in the VIP Lounge was perfectly normal, yet Himeko felt a damp chill against her back.

She had managed the Astral Express for so long and faced all kinds of danger.

The Stellaron Hunters, the madmen of the Interastral Peace Corporation, even Emanators of Destruction.

But none of them had ever made her feel this way.

It was the pressure of a higher-dimensional being looking down into a petri dish.

Su Chen's thighs were aching more and more.

Even his feet had gone stiff from holding his balance in those high heels.

Keeping up this pose was torture.

He wanted to end the conversation and get up to stretch.

He picked up the cracked white porcelain cup again.

He tipped his head back.

He drained the little tea left in the cup.

The Female Lord casually pushed the empty cup toward the center of the coffee table.

Its base scraped over the glass with a short, dull sound.

She stood.

Her tall figure blocked the virtual fireplace's glow, casting a shadow over Welt.

Her golden eyes rested calmly on the Former Herrscher of Reason.

"Do not judge the Divine Court by what you think you know."

Su Chen brushed nonexistent dust from his robe, speaking as casually as if he were discussing tomorrow's weather.

"For the Divine Court, erasing a galaxy takes no effort at all."

Silence.

Silence so complete a falling pin could have been heard.

Welt stared into the Female Lord's eyes.

He drew a deep breath of cool air, his lungs trembling slightly.

Welt slowly raised a hand and pushed his glasses up his nose with shaking fingers.