Chapter 738: Human Progenitor

The first report reached the Human Progenitor while a woman was refilling his cup.

Adam raised two fingers, and the officer’s projection appeared beside his throne.

The woman stopped pouring before the wine reached the rim and waited with the bottle in her hands.

"Proxima Centauri has issued a Tier-One emergency request, Your Majesty."

The officer bowed his head.

"Has a fleet been sent?" Adam asked.

"Yes. The nearest forces are already moving. Additional ships are preparing to follow."

"Then deal with it."

Adam looked at the man. "You received the request. You sent help. What part of that needs me?"

The officer lowered his head farther, trembling. "Understood, Your Majesty."

The projection closed.

Adam picked up his cup.

Proxima was valuable, but it was only one of the many worlds under the Empire’s protection. He had officials to handle threats like this.

If they needed him to make every decision, what was the point of appointing them?

"Those officials have become too comfortable," a man seated nearby said.

Adam didn’t respond. The man had spent the afternoon saying whatever he thought would please him.

After that interruption, Adam had little patience for more flattery.

He drank.

The next warning arrived before he lowered the cup.

Adam’s eyes narrowed. He opened the connection, expecting the officer to have found information he should have included in the first report.

A different face appeared.

"The formation on Mars is failing, Your Majesty."

The cup stopped in Adam’s hand.

"They’re reporting that the prisoners have begun to rebel. Central control isn’t answering."

"Show me."

A view of Mars appeared beside the officer.

Adam had no interest in watching prisoners fight over food or shelter. Those channels existed for people who enjoyed buying what the Empire had already defeated.

Most of their viewers would never have dared approach the creatures they bid for without the Empire holding them down.

Now the display showed a group gathered in front of a guarded enclosure.

One prisoner stood apart from the others. He was broad through the shoulders, with a collar around his neck and blood on his face. He had raised his hand and was staring at the energy gathering above it.

A guard struck him with the shaft of a weapon.

The prisoner bent beneath the blow. The energy scattered, and for a moment, the guard thought it was over.

He raised the weapon again.

This time, the prisoner caught it.

Adam leaned forward slightly.

The man pulled the guard closer and drove his fist into the armored chest. The guard flew backward, hit the enclosure, and collapsed.

The watching prisoners surged toward him.

More guards rushed into view.

One unleashed a burst of qi, knocking the nearest prisoners off their feet.

This time, the others didn’t scatter. They rushed the guards together, grabbing at them and trying to seize weapons from those who had fallen.

The view shook.

A weapon struck whatever was carrying the image, and the display broke apart.

The officer switched to another camera before Adam asked.

Now that the formation had shut down, they had to rely on these devices to transmit the feed.

BANG!!!

A different group was forcing open a barred entrance.

The first attack barely moved it. Then a second prisoner stepped forward, gathered his strength, and struck the same place.

The barrier bent.

Hands reached through from the other side.

Adam’s fingers tightened around the cup.

This was no small matter. Their strength was returning, which could only mean someone had taken control of the energy source supplying the formation.

Adam knew better than anyone that only a select few in the universe could break through this formation by brute force.

"Close the public feeds," he ordered. "Keep them available to the military."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"And send forces to the landing grounds. No ship leaves the planet. Destroy them all!"

The officer hesitated. "The surface posts are asking for support."

"Secure the planet first."

The man bowed quickly.

Adam watched the prisoners working on the barred entrance. Some were attacking the metal. Others were pulling their fellows through the opening as it widened.

He shut the view.

"What happened to central control?"

"Still no answer. A group is on its way there."

"Connect them to me when they arrive."

The officer disappeared.

The woman holding the bottle had stepped away from the throne. Adam looked at her, and she stopped at once.

"Did I tell you to leave?"

"No, Your Majesty."

She returned to his side. Her hands were shaking now.

The people around him knew about Mars.

An A-grade planet needing help was something they could discuss over wine. But trouble on Mars? That was something important.

CRACK!!!

Adam crushed the cup.

’Just who is it? This must be someone from inside. A traitor?’

He opened the wider map.

Earth appeared at its center, surrounded by the routes and systems under the Human Empire’s control.

Warnings marked Proxima and Mars. While he watched, another appeared much farther away.

Adam selected it.

Another prison world.

Its formation had weakened without warning. The local forces were requesting help before the prisoners reached the landing grounds.

The similarity made him put the two reports beside each other.

Then more warnings arrived.

The small group of marks spread across the map. Adam stopped opening them one at a time.

’Is it them? But that’s impossible. We have a deal!’

Only the Primordials came to mind as beings who could do something like this.

"We are confirming the reports, Your Majesty. The disturbances began too quickly for them to keep up."

"Too quickly?"

"Are you kidding me?"

His aura spread outward. The officer behind the projection suddenly fell to his knees.

The next moment, he turned into a pool of blood.

Adam’s gaze returned to the map.

Now that the formation on Mars was broken, the vampires and many other defeated races would make their move. But they were nothing compared to whoever was behind this.

He closed his eyes, and his aura spread even farther.

The woman beside him fell to her knees. She was by no means weak.

She was a Dao Immortal cultivator, above even a Celestial Immortal, but before Adam’s power, she was nothing.

His qi reverberated through the universe.

As he opened his eyes, his expression froze.

’Son?’