High Martial Arts: Slay enemies to become stronger, forge invincibility from billions of corpses.

Lal turned his head, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes, followed by an even wider smile.

"The Punisher?" he repeated, his tone clearly showing interest.

"A newly signed Level One Civilization Representative wants to join the Disciplinary Department on our first meeting? Do you even know what that is?"

"I know, the place where divine punishment is carried out."

"It's not just divine punishment."

"The Department of Punishment is the sharpest knife in the Alliance, and its blade is always the one that wears out the fastest."

"The casualty rate for new recruits in that department is ridiculously high. If you go in, you might die on your very first mission from the anti-aircraft array of some indebted civilization."

"But judging from your appearance, you're clearly not afraid."

"Since you want to be one, I can help you."

After saying that, he took out a small object from inside his robe and casually tossed it to Song Chen.

Song Chen caught it and opened his palm. It was a stone the size of a fingernail, completely black, with a rough surface, no luster, and no spiritual energy fluctuations.

However, if you probe inside with your mental energy, you will find an extremely complex energy circuit inside the stone.

"This is the Black Crystal Token," Ral explained.

"Take this to the Discipline Department and they will arrange an assessment for you. Once you pass the assessment, you will become a trainee Discipline Officer."

"As for whether it will be rejected... I don't think you'll reject it."

"Remember, don't embarrass the person who recommended you."

Song Chen put the black crystal token into his pocket and nodded.

"Thank you, Lord Ral."

"Oh, right, there's one more thing," Song Chen said, changing the subject.

"I would like to apply for technical assistance. Earth has just entered the universe and its basic infrastructure is too poor. We don't need anything too advanced. Technology below the level of a Type III civilization is enough."

"It's mainly about basic energy, materials science, medical technology, and space engineering. I want to help my hometown develop."

Lal chuckled: "You've got a lot going on, kid. It's nothing serious, I'll help."

He then turned to Arthas: "Did you hear that? All technological files of civilizations below level three are permanently and freely available to the Earth civilization."

Arthas nodded numbly and wrote the instruction down on the crystal plate.

"Is there anything else?" Ral asked.

"there is none left."

"Then sign it." Ral waved his hand and turned to walk towards the door.

He took a few steps and then stopped, turning back to look at Song Chen as if he were looking at a newly planted seed.

"Song Chen, the universe is vast. In this universe, geniuses are the scarcest resource. You will understand the meaning of this sentence in the future."

Then he walked out of the signing room, his dark blue robe disappearing in a flash at the doorway.

The signing room returned to silence, but this silence was completely different from before.

The members of the delegation looked at each other, all with the same expression. It would take them at least ten years to fully process what had happened in the past ten minutes.

Arthas took a deep breath, smiled, and put on the professional smile of the head of the contract department again: "Then let's continue."

The subsequent signing process went exceptionally smoothly.

The repayment agreement was completely rewritten according to Ral's instructions, with permanent interest-free terms and permanent exemption from the descent of the punitive messenger. The principal of 1.2 million cosmic crystals has no repayment deadline.

The main framework of the Treaty of Subsidiary Civilizations remained unchanged, but under Gu Qianzhi's persuasive arguments, Alsace agreed to add three supplementary clauses to the appendix:

First, the Blue Star civilization retains its autonomy in internal affairs, and the Alliance will not send permanent inspectors, but will only retain the right to conduct periodic financial audits.

Second, the Blue Star civilization can independently establish diplomatic and trade relations with other civilizations without the need for alliance approval.

Third, all non-investment-related resources within the solar system belong to the Blue Star civilization, and the alliance has priority in mining resources until the principal is fully repaid.

With these three articles added, the legal status of the Subordinate Civilization Treaty changed from "fully subordinate" to the "semi-autonomous subordinate" that Gu Qianzhi had long dreamed of.

In some respects, it is even more lenient than a semi-autonomous annex.

After signing the last document, Arthas stood up and shook hands with the members of the delegation in turn.

When he shook hands with Song Chen, his hand paused for a moment.

"Song Chen, with Lord Lars as your recommender, your future in the league is limitless."

"However, I still want to remind you that the disciplinary department is not the investment department; you have to rely on yourself there."

"I know."

After the signing ceremony, Sarah led them out of the signing hall.

The mission members walked down the corridor, each of them walking with a much lighter pace than when they arrived.

As Gu Qianzhi walked, he flipped through the final version of the treaty text, muttering to himself, "Permanent interest-free, permanent penalty-free, principal with no time limit—this is hundreds of times better than our most optimistic initial plan."

Chen Yuanzhou, standing nearby, had already begun recalculating the economic model: "Without interest, if Blue Star simply develops normally, the revenue it receives from the technology and markets opened up by the Alliance each year will be enough to pay off the principal in tens of thousands of years."

"If there is additional large income, such as from treasure hunting or trading, the time can be significantly reduced."

"Tens of thousands of years," the female sociologist repeated.

"It still sounds like a long time, but on a cosmic scale it's nothing. The Milky Way is 13 billion years old, so tens of thousands of years isn't even a heartbeat."

Soon, the delegation returned to the location where the spaceship was docked.

The disc-shaped spaceship remained beneath the dome, its silver-gray hull gleaming faintly in the dazzling light of the meteorite.

Zhou Wangyue stood in front of the spaceship's gangway but didn't go up. He asked Song Chen, "What about you? Are you coming back to Blue Star with us?"

Song Chen shook his head: "I'm not going back. I'll stay on Liuguang Star and report to the Disciplinary Department."

Zhou Wangyue nodded, without saying anything like "take care," as he and Song Chen didn't need such words.

She glanced at Song Chen one more time before turning around, and then walked up the gangway.

The mission members boarded the ship one by one.

The spaceship's hatch slowly closed, and then space distorted as the spaceship was teleported out of the domed hall.

The outer starry sky of the Streamer Star reappeared outside the porthole, with the harbor, ships shuttling back and forth, and the dazzling neutron star's radiation ring slowly rotating in the distance.

On the spaceship, Zhou Wangyue stood by the porthole, looking at the starlight, and said something very brief.

"Keep it up!"

Everyone knows who he's talking to.

Meanwhile, Song Chen stood in the lobby of the investment department's administrative center, holding the jet-black stone in his hand.

The black crystal token felt slightly cool in his palm. He turned it over and looked at it; four characters were engraved on the back of the stone.

It's not a universal language, but it's recorded in the spaceship's database.

This is the ancient language of Cangxing, the mother tongue of the oldest core race of the Cangxing civilization.

He recognized the meaning of those four words.

"The Blade of Punishment"